THE pressure group that forced the Government into a U-turn over the sell-off of forests has launched a campaign to halt the proposed cull of badgers.

But a Westcountry MP last night labelled 38 Degrees as an "urban pressure group that does not understand the countryside".

Ministers this month announced plans that could lead to 40 badger culling zones, with most of them likely to be in disease hotspots in the Westcountry. Two "pilot" schemes could take place next summer.

38 Degrees, which harnessed the power of the internet to block the privatisation of publicly-owned forests earlier this year, believes the plans "simply don't stack up".

It has called on its 800,000-strong membership to start a "massive petition to tell the Government to call off the cull". It has more than 27,500 members in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

"Last week we voted to decide whether or not to launch a campaign to stop the Government's plan to kill badgers," wrote campaigner Marie Campbell on the group's website.

"The results are in – and 87 per cent of respondents answered 'yes' to the question 'should we work together to stop government plans to kill badgers?'."

The group is co-founded by millionaire Gordon Roddick, a graduate of Cirencester's Royal Agricultural College, and has already helped stop Britain's first super dairy.