Lords inflict defeat by halting foot-and-mouth Bill

A surprise defeat was inflicted on the Government last night over its plans to introduce "draconian" powers to allow the slaughter of animals in the event of another foot-and-mouth crisis.

The Lords voted to halt the Animal Health Bill, scuppering Tony Blair's legislative timetable until the autumn.

The Government was defeated by 130 votes to 124 when peers backed an amendment that said that the Bill should not continue until several reports commissioned by the Government – from the National Audit Office, Royal Society and the "lessons learned" inquiry into foot-and-mouth – are published later this year.

Last night some at Westminster argued that the defeat was a "revenge attack" for the Government's decision to press ahead with a hunting ban. But others in the House of Lords said it was a "pre-emptive strike" to stop a "bad Bill" proceeding before the Government had considered all available research.

The Liberal Democrats, most of whom abstained, said that the powers the Bill would give the Government to enter farms and slaughter livestock breached civil liberties. Many Tories supported the amendment, and several Labour peers abstained.

Last night, Lord Moran, the independent peer who tabled the successful amendment, said that it seemed "nonsensical" to proceed with the Bill long before the publication of the Government's own reports.

"If you want to have legislation, you should get it right," he said. "The way to get it right is to see what the experts say."

The Government's record on foot-and-mouth came under fresh attack in Brussels yesterday as Nick Brown, the former agriculture minister, faced a barrage of questions over his handling of the crisis.

Mr Brown said that coping with last year's foot-and-mouth crisis was a greater logistical task than the UK's involvement in the Gulf war.

Giving evidence to a special committee of MEPs, he said that "up to 7,000 civil servants, 2,000 vets and 2,000 service personnel from the armed forces were involved at the peak of the outbreak".

Tony Blair met rural leaders yesterday at 10 Downing Street to frame a long-term strategy for farming. The Prime Minister told farmers' leaders, environmentalists and food-industry heads that the Government recognised that the "past few years have been very, very difficult indeed".

But he was challenged by Ben Gill, the president of the National Farmers' Union, to match his words with money.

"A lot of these recommendations were recommendations we discussed almost two years ago," he said.

Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced the creation of a Food Chain Centre to co-ordinate food issues.

She said that the Government would make £5m available over the next 12 months to improve food marketing. The Government would also inject £1.5m into improving competitiveness in the red-meat sector.

But Peter Ainsworth, her Tory counterpart, said the initiative was "pure window-dressing". "There's a host of things they could do, such as cutting the appalling amount of red tape and stopping illegal food imports," he said. "All they are doing is talking."

Malcolm Bruce, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said: "The Government doesn't appear to have said anything that would improve the position of farmers."