A national newspaper has reported that the Labour Party is going to end the practice of badger culling - which has been going on for more than a decade in Somerset.

The culling of badgers has been used to try and eradicate TB in cattle which can be catastrophic for farmers.

But opponents, including the Somerset Wildlife Trust, say the evidence that killing badgers to reduce the spread of bovine TB in cattle is flawed.

According to the latest figures just over 7,000 badgers are killed in Somerset in any given year.

According to The Guardian newspaper the Shadow farming minister said: "I've spent a long time looking at this.... the last piece of work done by the government, found that badger culling is not the answer. We're going to make England bovine TB free by 2038, but with a range of measures that do not include culling."

The conservatives had previously said they would stop badger culling but the current Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey, said her department would continue the cull. The Badger Trust say the disease could be better controlled by better biosecurity rules and limiting cattle movements and fear that badgers are moving towards extinction.

In April, figures released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed more than 210,000 badgers have been killed since the cull began in 2013 - half the total badger population.