A chief superintendent who has backed a campaign by charities, including the RSPCA, to ban hunting should be stripped of his role as the national police lead on the issue, MPs have said.

Ch Supt Matt Longman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead on fox hunting, gave a keynote speech at the launch of a campaign to ban trail hunting and claimed that the current law is “not working”.

The campaign, known as Time for Change, is being led by the League Against Cruel Sports and is being backed by the RSPCA, a number of animal rights groups and charities not usually associated with hunting, including Battersea Cats and Dogs Home and Cats Protection.

During Thursday’s launch Ch Supt Longman, commander of Plymouth Police, said that trail hunting was being used as a “smokescreen” and blamed the current law for a low number of prosecutions.

But his intervention was condemned by two rural MPs, who said that he must be removed from his role as the most senior officer in charge of hunting after his “biased” statements.