THE Government has been "totally cowardly" over failing to tackle bovine tuberculosis which has been ravaging Westcountry cattle herds for years, causing despair and anguish – according to the president of the Country Land and Business Association, William Worsley.

On a two-day whistlestop tour of the Westcountry, Mr Worsley told audiences that if livestock farming was to survive in the South West, the next administration had to deal with the curse of bovine TB – and that meant a cull of diseased wildlife vectors, principally badgers.

Speaking yesterday at meetings at Moortown Farm, near Tavistock and Pentewan, near St Austell, he said the Labour Government's refusal to gets to grips with the disease had been "cowardly and absurd".

He said: "This is the most awful disease and the behaviour of the current Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has been absolutely disgusting. The Conservatives have said they will allow a cull of diseased badgers. But I believe the present Government's approach to tackling bovine TB is both dreadful and cowardly, unsupportable and just plain thoroughly wrong.

"If this whole situation had been tackled by the Government 10 years ago, it would have been sorted out by now and we wouldn't be having 40,000 cattle slaughtered every year."

A Yorkshire farmer, Mr Worsley spoke about the intimate knowledge that cattle farmers had of their herds, knowing each animal. The cost of losing them through infection or because they showed positive to a TB test was very high indeed in human and financial terms.

"We shall hold any incoming Government to task on this – and we're not going to give up," he pledged.

He stressed that throughout the life of the last Parliament, the CLA had consistently criticised the Government for its unwillingness to "bite the bullet and introduce necessary – but potentially unpopular – measures to eradicate TB in both cattle and wildlife".

He added: "The last Government was perfectly happy to slaughter 40,000 infected cattle a year, but was unwilling to take any action to control this appalling disease in a large sector of our wildlife infected with the same disease – and that is absurd. The economic, social and environmental cost of this disease must not be allowed to continue.

"The new Government's response to the issue, and the speed with which it acts, will be a test of their attitude to the countryside – and we shall be holding them to account if they fail to measure up."

In two wide-ranging speeches he covered topics as diverse as public coastal access, rural planning, broadband coverage – and the importance of supporting and maintaining farming on the Westcountry's three moors.