JUST one in five people living in rural areas want to see the hunting ban scrapped, new research suggests.

Despite senior Conservatives signalling they plan to repeal the Hunting Act if they win the next election, an Ipsos/Mori poll for the League Against Cruel Sports shows that even among Tory voters, just a third back the move.

Tory leader David Cameron has warned: "It is a bad piece of legislation and we would be better off without it." But opponents believe the policy will backfire politically and be damaging for animal welfare.

According to the poll, 76 per cent of people surveyed think hunting with dogs is cruel and 59 per cent of voters would be less likely to back a would-be MP if they found out they supported hunts.

The Tories are committed to holding a free vote on repealing the legislation if they win the next election. Mr Cameron and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague have made it clear they back a repeal.

But the poll suggests support for hunting is low even among Conservative ranks, with only 33 per cent supporting it. Of Labour supporters, just 13 per cent think it should be legalised again while among Lib-Dems, it is 19 per cent.

And of rural voters, just 22 per cent support repealing the Act, compared to 23 per cent of those living in the suburbs and 14 per cent in urban areas.

Douglas Batchelor, the league's chief executive, said: "The opinion polling is the complete opposite of what the hunters would have you believe."

He claimed opponents of the Act were "trying to rerun the argument that we have a freedom to be cruel".

"The countryside doesn't want it either – we are dealing with a very well-funded, small group that is not representative of the countryside as a whole."

Both sides of the debate point to the low number of cases which have gone to court – just eight prosecutions and three convictions. Opponents of the law say it shows it is not working and should be scrapped, while supporters demand the rules be tightened.

Adrian Sanders, Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, said: "As a liberal, I am not in favour of bans – I don't like banning things. But for me, this is an issue of protecting animals from cruelty."

He admitted that the low number of successful prosecutions meant the law was "ripe for review – not to repeal it but to tighten it".

The Countryside Alliance included repealing the Hunting Act and championing country pursuits in its Rural Manifesto.

Alison Hawes, South West regional director of the alliance, said that the survey results should be "taken with a pinch of salt"

"The thing with all these polls is you can always get the answer you want by asking the right questions. It is clutching at straws. They know that they are facing repeal."

She said even if the Conservatives held a free vote, newly-elected Tory MPs were unlikely to defy their leader to oppose repeal.