DEFIANT pro-hunt campaignershave vowed to take their revenge on the Labour government at the ballot box.

The warning came at a meeting of the Monmouthshire Hunt on Saturday which several hundred people turned up to support.

It was the first meeting of the hunt since the government's ban on fox hunting with hounds was introduced last week.

Around 70 huntsmen and women gathered in Llanarth, near Raglan, as did hunts across Britain, "to hunt within the law".

For the pro-hunting lobby in Gwent, it was a day tinged with sadness but they sent out a firm message that the battle was far from over.

Gary Yeomans, joint master of the Monmouthshire Hunt, told the crowd, to cheers and applause, to back prospective Conservative candidate for Monmouth David Davies AM at the general election and not sitting Labour MP Huw Edwards.

Mr Yeomans said: "We are going to run a pack of hounds through this legislation."

Mr Edwards said: "When I met Gary Yeomans, we had a perfectly courteous discussion. He expressed his view and I expressed mine.

"I voted for the Hunting Bill. I believe it is morally wrong to hunt animals with dogs for the purpose of sport.

"This has been the majority view in my constituency from the people who have contacted me on this issue for many years."

Addressing the gathering on Saturday, his Parliamentary rival Mr Davies said many people would lose their jobs as a result of the ban.

Alan Hayes, the other joint master of the Monmouthshire Hunt, said he had received a letter of support from Conservative leader Michael Howard and urged the crowd, again to cheers, to remember who to vote for at the election.

Mr Hayes said the government would get a bloody nose at the election, "particularly in Monmouthshire".

He said: "We are confident we will end this law. We have run these hunts for 300 years and, apart from this temporary blip, we shall be doing so for another 300 years."

He said the Monmouthshire Hunt would still observe the hunting law as it stood and Saturday's hunt was used to exercise its hounds.