There was further badger cull controversy this week as Queen guitarist and founder of the Save Me Trust spoke out against former Defra secretary Owen Paterson's claim that the “extraordinary reduction’ in bovine TB disease levels seen in the Somerset and Gloucestershire pilot areas prove badger culling works”.

Dr May said: “Calling an ex-minister a liar is, of course, a very serious accusation, but, in the light of new expert analysis of the statistics on the Government’s badger cull, it is an inescapable conclusion.

"Much more serious is the fact that Owen Paterson is apparently deliberately misrepresenting the facts to the farming community, giving them false hope that killing badgers will solve their bTB problem. We, the public, of course, continue to foot the bill for this cruel, misguided, and ultimately doomed policy.”

However NFU spokesman David George rebutted Dr May's claims.

"There is a scientific consensus based on a review of the RBCT in 2011 that TB in cattle herds would be reduced by 16 per cent if sufficient badgers were removed from a stylised area of 150km2.

"It has cost the tax payer £500 million to control the disease in England in the last ten years. It is estimated that the costs of bovine TB control will top £1 billion over the next decade, if no action is taken. This is unsustainable."