Labour has demanded the outlawing of trail hunting on public land, as Boxing Day meets prepare to go ahead.
Several licences have been granted by the government for the meetings, despite a growing movement among public bodies to refuse permission for them to take place on their property.
In trail hunting, which remains legal, dogs and riders pursue an artificial scent on an agreed route. However, the National Trust suspended licences to trail hunt on its land after a video emerged of a huntsman explaining how to use them as a way of holding an illegal foxhunt.
Since then, both Natural Resources Wales and the National Trust have announced an end to trail hunting. Campaigners opposing the events said that they still expected more than 240 hunting days to have taken place on Ministry of Defence-owned land alone this year. Labour said the department had allowed 21 licensed hunts by mid-December.
Other public bodies continue to have a suspension of licences in place, including some national parks, the Church Commissioners and Forestry England. An exemption to lockdown rules allowed trail hunts to take place last Christmas. Labour now wants a tightening of the rules this year.
It follows the case of Mark Hankinson, the director of the Masters of the Foxhounds Association, who was convicted in October of encouraging others to hide the illegal hunting of live foxes behind a “smokescreen” of trail hunting.
Hankinson was convicted of encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence over comments in two web seminars. “We need to have clear, visible, plausible trail laying being done throughout the day,” he was recorded saying.
He added: “It’s a lot easier to create a smokescreen if you’ve got more than one trail layer operating, and that is what it’s all about – trying to portray to the people watching that you’re going about your legitimate business.”
Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, said allowing trail hunts to go ahead on public land was “completely irresponsible”.
He added: “The government must do more to close the loopholes that allow people to break the law, and must consign hunting to the history books, where the vast majority of us believe it belongs.”
With Boxing Day falling on a Sunday, some hunts have been moved to Monday. Polly Portwin, director of the campaign for hunting at the Countryside Alliance, said last month that the hunting world was “looking forward to showcasing their lawful trail-hunting activities again this year and welcomes the return to village greens and town centres across the country”.
