The MP for the Cotswolds has continued to oppose a bill which recognises that animals have feelings.

Earlier this week Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown proposed an amendment to the Animal Sentience Bill that he says would recognise “local customs, religious rights, cultural conditions and regional heritage”.

The Bill is designed to recognise animals as sentient beings that, capable of feeling pain and joy, and will also see a body created to ensure UK ministers take account of animal welfare needs when drawing up and implementing policy.

However, there are fears from backbench Tories that the committee would become “a Trojan horse” for an “extreme agenda”.

Sir Clifton-Brown said: “The problem with the Animal Sentience Bill, it goes beyond the commitment made by a minister to recognise animal sentience in British law in the same way that it’s recognised in EU law.

“Therefore, my amendment is designed to ensure that the safeguards of the EU law are duplicated in British law.

“I think it is a sensible, proportionate amendment that will allow a committee with limited resources to focus on those really egregious areas where animal sentience is being abused, and not run into some of the less important areas.”

The amendment was accepted by the Government, environment minister Jo Churchill confirmed.

However, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has questioned whether Sir Clifton-Brown’s amendment may be an attempt to reverse the hunting ban.

She said: “I think what he’s really trying to do is by the backdoor, trying to turn back the clock on the hunting ban, or to create legal uncertainty around enforcement by saying this old argument that we had when the Labour government banned hunting, that it’s all part of our tradition, it’s part of rural culture.”

The Bill later received a third reading and will return to the Lords for further scrutiny.