A Kent MP has secured a debate in Parliament today to urge the government to stop live animal exports from the Port of Ramsgate.

Laura Sandys, MP for Ramsgate, will attempt to convince the House of Commons to do all they can to stop the trade going ahead.

Ms Sandys said: "Animals are sentient beings and deserve to be treated with care and compassion - exporting them on long, cramped journeys is barbaric and totally unnecessary. Live exports are a thing of the past.

"Just as the last Labour Government found it was unable to put a stop to the trade due to EU Regulations, so too the Coalition is finding it impossible to unilaterally prevent what, at present, is a legal trade. "

However the MP believes there are ways in which the Government could make exporting livestock "more difficult and more importantly significantly more expensive."

She added: "A new labelling system that was passed 2 weeks ago will ban producers from labelling the country of origin as the place of slaughter. If an animal is reared in the UK this must be declared - this could make people think twice about purchasing exported meat and kill off the trade."

Earlier this year Thanet council called for a limit on the time that animals should be kept in captivity during transportation.

The council leader, Bob Bayford, made the request to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which looks after the welfare of animals when they are being transported.

In reply, DEFRA said that, although they would prefer animals to be "slaughtered as close as practicable to their point of production," the government "would not support setting an automatic eight-hour maximum journey time for all species of livestock".

Instead, DEFRA said that they will be supporting the idea of European discussions of setting a maximum journey time or maximum distance limit, which aims to stop animals being sent on unnecessarily long journeys to slaughter.