A LONG-AWAITED Bill to ban hunting should be re-introduced at Westminster and forced through the House of Lords, Swindon MP Julia Drown has insisted.

She is among almost 200 Labour MPs who have now turned up the heat on Tony Blair to introduce legislation in the next few weeks.

But the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance said the demand would bring ridicule on the Government.

The anti-hunt MPs are hoping that the Hunting Bill defeated by Peers last year will be re-introduced in the Commons next month.

The Bill would almost certainly be passed by MPs, who have seen peers repeatedly frustrate their efforts to impose a ban.

It would then go to the Lords, and after a month the Commons Speaker would have the right to certify it passed by the Parliament Act, because a year would have gone by since it was passed at second reading by MPs in December, 2002.

It could become law before the end of the current session in October.

Ms Drown said there had been nine votes at Westmin-ster to ban hunting since 1995.

But the Government had given a promise it would be resolved in the current Parliament.

The South Swindon MP said: "I look forward to seeing a ban on hunting on the statute book by the end of this Parliamentary session."

But Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said that the public may punish MPs who were obsessed with hunting rather than real priorities such as health and education.

He added: "By failing to concentrate on real priorities, especially at a time when there are so many pressing domestic and international issues on the political agenda, backbench Labour MPs are making their Government look ridiculous".

Wiltshire North MP Tory James Gray has also opposed the proposed hunt ban and pledged to continue the battle against it.