On Monday 10th June the Liberal Democrats published their 2024 election manifesto.

For animals, their manifesto includes:

• A ban on caged hens and foie gras
• A new Animal Welfare Bill
• Crackdown on puppy and kitten smuggling

Here are the sections of the manifesto that relate to animal protection, reproduced as worded within the manifesto:

Introduce new laws to crack down on puppy and kitten smuggling

Renegotiating the Australia and New Zealand trade agreements in line with our objectives for health, environmental and animal welfare standards, withdrawing from them if that cannot be achieved.

Give consumers confidence in the food they eat by:

• Providing local authorities with greater powers and resources to inspect and monitor food production.
• Ensuring all imported food meets UK standards for health and welfare, and that goods are properly checked.
• Introducing robust and clear-to-understand food labelling.

Ensure Britain continues to be a world leader in animal welfare and standards by:

• Passing a comprehensive new Animal Welfare Bill to ensure the highest standards possible.
• Ensuring that no animal product that would be illegal to produce in the UK can be sold here, including foie gras and food produced with antibiotic growth promoters.
• Developing safe, effective, humane, and evidence-based ways of controlling bovine tuberculosis, including by investing to produce workable vaccines.
• Improving standards of animal health and welfare in agriculture, including a ban on caged hens, and preventing unnecessarily painful practices in farming.
• At least matching the EUs stricter rules on preventative use of antibiotics, and introducing a comprehensive plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance in farm animals.

To read the full Liberal Democrat manifesto and see their other commitments, including for nature and the environment https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto