A re-enactment of the 1949 Piccadilly Hunt protest took place in Westminster on Wednesday in protest at plans to ban hunting with dogs.

Thousands of demonstrators, including more than 50 riders in full hunting dress, joined the parade through Central London, ending in Parliament Square.

Pro-hunting MPs were presented with a letter to hand to Tony Blair by the son of one of the organisers of the 1949 lobby, Roger Bennett, and Dan Barton, one of the two surviving members of the original march.

The protest was organised this time by the Union of Country Sport Workers.

"The letter will say that they were willing to fight for field sports back in 1949 and we are still willing to fight now to oppose injustice against a minority," a spokesman said.

Fellow campaigner Alex Ford, who is a huntsman to the Llangeinor hunt in Wales, claimed that a ban would jeopardise thousands of jobs.

"The politicians who want to destroy our jobs know nothing of our way of life, but want to interfere with it because of the spin they swallow whole from the anti-hunters," he said.

"It's time to beat urban bigotry. We will never accept a ban."