London Editor

Cracks are emerging in the coalition Government over controversial plans to cull badgers after another Westcountry Liberal Democrat MP spoke out against the decision.

Adrian Sanders, Lib Dem MP for Torbay, claims the scientific evidence does not stack up to justify shooting sick animals to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

He joins St Ives Lib Dem MP Andrew George, the party's rural affairs spokesman, who is opposed to the cull principally because shooting free-running badgers, rather than trapping them first, is unproven.

MPs from the Conservative Party, which has expressed longer-standing support for a cull, are broadly in favour. George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth), Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth), Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) and Mel Stride (Central Devon) have publicly backed the measures.

The coalition agreement, the deal struck by the two parties following last year's hung parliament, found common ground on tackling bovine tuberculosis (TB), the disease which led to 25,000 cattle being slaughtered last year.

It stated: "As part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bovine TB."

On Tuesday, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman announced plans that could lead to the creation of 40 badger culling zones, with most likely to be sited in the South West, from next year.

Sources indicate the plan was almost pulled last weekend after Cabinet ministers were spooked by the possible public outcry.

Two "pilots" will take place first to confirm so-called controlled shooting will work. Other measures will include routine cattle testing, surveillance and restrictions. Some £20 million is to be spent on developing oral vaccines.

Those Liberal Democrats against the plan, in common with animal welfare campaigners and Labour MPs, cite the 2007 report on the ten-year Independent Scientific Group (ISG) trial which concluded a cull would not "meaningfully" control the disease.

But the Government contends a series of up-to-date analyses of the trial, led by Imperial College London's Christl Donnelly, show that the rate of cattle infections continued to drop years later. Problems with displaced badgers spreading the disease – the so-called perturbation effect – also disappeared.

Ministers have raised the prospect of an oral vaccine for cattle and badgers – seen as a magic bullet – never coming to fruition.

But Mr Sanders said: "No one should underestimate the cruel impact of TB in cattle or in badgers, and its emotional and economic effects on farmers, but any response must be based on science and the Government has failed to take on the advice from research conducted by the ISG."

The issue could also prove to be divisive within Lib Dem circles. The party, unlike the Tories and Labour, has strong support in both urban and rural areas.

Mr George said: "(Controlled shooting) is an untried and untested method. I am not squeamish about culling badgers.

"But the proper and effective control of this terrible disease had to be based on evidence-based science."

In 2009, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg backed a targeted cull of badgers in the Westcountry – an apparent U-turn after dismissing calls a year earlier.