By politics.co.uk staff

The majority of the public continues to believe fox hunting would be illegal, a politics.co.uk poll suggests.

The straw poll found 3,408 people (38%) believe fox hunting should become legal, against 5,450 (62%) who believe it should remain illegal.

Take the politics.co.uk poll

Hunting enthusiasts were disappointed when the promised free vote on fox hunting did not feature in the coalition’s policy documents or the Queen’s Speech.

Later comments from David Cameron confirmed he still intended for a free vote to take place, although without any Commons time to debate beforehand.

But parliamentary sources say that promise has now been transmuted into a motion on whether there should be a free vote on the matter.

Most analysts expect that motion to fail. Several new Tory MPs, from constituencies where the ban is a hot political issue, would fear the political consequences of voting against repeal, but would still vote to stop a vote taking place.