LABOUR'S ban on fox hunting has been condemned as a "notorious example of bad government" in a highly critical report by a group of former civil service mandarins.

The Hunting Act 2004 is ranked alongside the Tories' hated Poll Tax and the much-derided Millennium Dome as dire examples of ministers chasing headlines with "ill thought-out" legislation.

The ex-Whitehall chiefs claim the way Britain is governed has gone badly wrong and requires reform.

The Better Government Initiative (BGI) said any problem facing government becomes political, "and the need to score or refute political points became more important than the need to resolve the problem itself".

Labour's policy to drive through a ban on hunting dominated the early stages of Tony Blair's administration, despite the PM himself having misgivings about the policy.

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According to the diaries of his spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair tried to find a "way out" of his pledge to ban fox hunting because he "didn't instinctively feel" it was right.

But the measure was forced through, after 700 hours of parliamentary debates and high profile protests on the streets of London.

The Tories will go into the coming election pledging a free vote on repeal of the "bad law", while Gordon Brown has backed a campaign to save the ban, despite hinting that it might not have been perfectly drafted.

The BGI report warned: "There has been too much legislation in recent years, some of it has been unnecessary and too much of it has been badly prepared.

"Over the last 20 years, the public and media have come to regard several events as notorious examples of bad government: the Community Charge (now remembered as the Poll Tax) in 1990, the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, the failure of the Child Support Agency, the Hunting Act 2004, the ... Millennium Dome."

Last night hunt supporters seized on the report as "powerful independent backing" of the need for repeal.

Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner said: "The endless warnings from inside and outside the Government – that a refusal to legislate on the basis of evidence and principle would lead to chaos – were ignored. We now live with the consequence: an unworkable piece of legislation that has wasted thousands of hours of police time and millions of pounds of taxpayers money."

Mr Bonner noted that the Poll Tax, the CSA and the Millennium Dome have all been the subject of dramatic policy reversals. He added: "Whoever is in Government after the election must also address the Hunting Act and give Parliament an opportunity to reverse it as well."

Senior Conservatives, from David Cameron down, have made clear they do not support the ban.

Tory shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert said: "This is bad law, and bad laws should be repealed. A Conservative Government will give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote, with a government bill in government time."

The 1997 Labour Party manifesto promised a free vote in Parliament on whether hunting with hounds should be banned but was not made a priority by the new Blair Government.

But two years later, when Mr Blair was bounced into promising a new Bill on the subject late at night on BBC1's Question Time, it sparked a furore which took on a life of its own. Last month Mr Brown gave only lukewarm backing to the ban.

But asked if he thought the 2005 Hunting Act was working well, he said: "I think the legislation was designed with the best intentions and I think we should distinguish between whether the legislation could have been a bit better or a bit more explicit and those people who want to get rid of any legislation whatsoever."