A close ally of Sir Keir Starmer has declared Dartmoor ponies "safe under this government", despite fears that a new livestock counting method could lead to a cull of the semi-wild animals.
Lord Katz offered the assurance after Lord Roborough urged him to "step in and save the ponies", accusing Natural England of a "massive blunder".
The agency, which provides payments for nature-sensitive moorland grazing, is now including Dartmoor ponies in livestock counts for its agri-environmental schemes.
The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association (DHPA) warns this will compel commoners, who graze livestock on the Devon hills, to choose between commercial animals and ponies.
If commoners choose commercial livestock to earn a living, DHPA secretary Joss Hibbs warned the ponies would be lost.
Lord Roborough, a Conservative peer, said the latest environmental land management schemes agreements “require a 50% reduction in grazing efforts on the moor to be compliant, and that follows a historic 50% reduction”.
He said while Natural England might not have wanted to target a particular species, the organisation “should have known” what the effects of its counting method would be, given the ponies’ “limited commercial value”.
Lord Roborough continued: “That is a massive blunder.
“The government’s arm’s-length body is trying to impose its centrally determined will over the legal rights of the graziers on Dartmoor and creating disastrous consequences for public acceptance of nature recovery efforts.
“What is (Lord Katz) doing to bring more control and accountability to Natural England’s performance?
“Will he step in and save the ponies?”
Responding, Lord Katz said the answer to Lord Roborough’s last question was “of course, yes”.
Speaking at the House of Lords despatch box, he added: “Natural England has not recommended a cull of Dartmoor ponies.
“It does not have the power to do so nor has it advised one, and we are clear as a government that Dartmoor ponies have an important part to play in Dartmoor’s heritage and also to keep supporting the habitats of Dartmoor.”
Lord Katz also said: “Dartmoor is in dire ecological health, in part because of decades of inappropriate grazing.
“Our agri schemes are designed to fix the situation through changed grazing patterns.
“Indeed, the Natural England chair Tony Juniper said ponies are central to that approach and he’s right – the Dartmoor hill ponies are part of that solution, not the problem.
“They are safe under this government.”
Baroness Whitaker, a Labour peer, asked whether some Dartmoor ponies could be moved to a different National Park – the South Downs – where she lives.
She suggested they could “eat the tussocky grass, thus allowing the natural grassland to regenerate”, following “successful” similar efforts in the past.
Lord Katz replied: “I’m not sure I’m going to direct the movement of ponies or any other livestock from this despatch box, but it’s an interesting idea.
“I would just say, I’m sure lots of people on Dartmoor, commons graziers and other people on Dartmoor, would like to keep all their ponies there – but it’s an interesting idea.”
In the House of Commons, Labour MP for Exeter Steve Race laid a decline in Dartmoor pony populations at Natural England’s door.
He said the animals are “so iconic that they feature as the logo of the (Dartmoor) National Park”.
But “the policies of Natural England have already meant that the population of ponies has fallen” over the past decade, he added.
According to campaigners, Dartmoor hill ponies have been on the landscape for 4,500 years, although numbers have dwindled from 6,000 25 years ago to fewer than a 1,000 today.
Commons Leader Sir Alan Campbell said in his reply: “Natural England are not recommending a cull – I don’t believe it’s actually in their power to do anything about it anyway.
“Let me just put quite clearly on record, the government would not allow one.”
Elsewhere, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described the counting method as “some weird regulation that came out of Natural England”, and added “no-one considers the unintended consequence” of red tape.
Speaking at TheCityUK’s annual conference in central London, Mrs Badenoch said: “We need to start finding all of these things that need to be repealed, so that we can have room to breathe.”
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