Ministers are being urged to ban trail hunting on public land ahead of this year’s traditional Boxing Day hunt, amid concern from critics that the practice is being used as a smokescreen for illegal foxhunting. In a landslide vote at the National Trust’s annual meeting in November, members voted overwhelming to ban this form of hunting, which was devised after the Hunting Act banned the hunting of foxes with dogs. The National Trust ban came after one of the biggest landowners in Wales, Natural Resources Wales, similarly banned the practice. But activists expect more than 240 hunting days will have taken place on land owned by the Ministry of Defence this year. In trail hunting, a “trail layer” goes out ahead of the hunt, dragging a rag coated in an animal scent. Hunters cast the hounds to this scent and follow it to the end of the trail. Critics argue that it is routinely used as a cover for old-fashioned illegal hunting but hunters say trail hunting causes no harm to animals. Labour criticised the government for granting licences to “the prime minister’s mates” on Boxing Day meetings. The shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “Allowing hunts to go ahead on public and government-owned land is completely irresponsible, regardless of whether those taking part are the prime minister’s mates. “The government must do more to close the loopholes that allow people to break the law, and consign hunting to the history books, where the vast majority of us believe it belongs.” Chris Luffingham, the director of external affairs at the animal rights charity League Against Cruel Sports, added: “It’s time all major landowners permanently banned trail hunting on their land and that the government strengthens the Hunting Act to ensure its loopholes can no longer be exploited.” Last year, the National Trust was among several landowners to suspend trail hunting on their land while police investigated claims that hunt organisers planned to kill foxes. In October, the reputation of Britain’s hunting community was dealt a serious blow after a prominent huntsman was convicted of encouraging others to hide the illegal hunting of live foxes behind a cover of trail hunting. Mark Hankinson, the former director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, was found guilty of encouraging or assisting others to break the Hunting Act 2004, under the Serious Crimes Act 2007. He had been talking to more than 100 other hunters on a series of training webinars about how to use trail hunting as a smokescreen.