HUNTERS say a new report has "vindicated" their arguments against a ban after it concluded the activity is the most effective way of controlling foxes, and that all arguments of cruelty are "invalid".

The publication states hunting with hounds is "demonstrably the natural and most humane method of control", and there was "never any scientific evidence" to support a ban.

The all-party parliamentary Middle Way Group worked with the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management to produce the document, which concluded the hunting ban of 2004 is "unscientific, unenforceable, socially divisive, and harms, rather than improves, animal welfare".

It continued: "Further it was passed in a way that shamed the Parliamentary process – simply a bad law, and therefore it must be repealed."

Yesterday, Alison Hawes, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said the findings were another step towards the repeal the organisation is campaigning for. She said: "We are now looking at the probability of a repeal, rather than the possibility. The ball is really rolling in that direction."

David Cameron has already pledged the Conservatives will hold a free vote on the issue in Parliament time if they come to power, in an election likely to be held next year.

Ms Hawes said: "Providing Gordon Brown doesn't perform some miracle by June next year and we get a change of Government, potentially this hunting season could be the last under the ban."

East Devon MP Hugo Swire said the report backed claims the ban was never connected to animal welfare. He said: "It was always just another attack on rural and farming communities. It is a pernicious and vindictive act."

David Higman, chairman of the Dart Vale and South Pool Harriers in South Devon, said the report "vindicated" the argument hunters had put forward all along. He said: "To continue as we are now is not the way forward. It's not good for wildlife – it's not good for anybody. It's a shambles."

Jim Pascoe, chairman of the Four Burrows Hunt at Redruth, West Cornwall, said it was "perfectly obvious" hunting must be legalised again, albeit in a more regulated form. He said: "Hunts can't carry on operating under a ban indefinitely, but across the country everything has been kept up and running, ready for the time when we can hunt again properly."

But Louise Robertson, spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports, stood by the campaign group's argument that fox hunting is inhumane.

She said: "If you look in the Burns Report, there's evidence from post-mortem results that this argument of foxes dying from a quick nip to the neck is rubbish. They can suffer severe wounding, internal bleeding and internal injuries. It is cruel. It's not a humane death."

And a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said there are "no plans" to revise the Hunting Act, which was passed to end a practice which a "clear majority" opposed because it causes "unnecessary suffering".

He said: "The Government considered all of the available evidence on the issue of hunting, and indeed generated much of it through the Burns Inquiry and the Portcullis House hearings. Much of this evidence supported a ban on hunting with dogs and on hare coursing events.

"Parliament listened to and debated the evidence extensively, and MPs from all main parties repeatedly voted for a ban by large majorities."