The future of foxhunting is safe, the master of Ryedale's Middleton Hunt claimed at its annual Boxing Day meet.

Frank Houghton Brown made his comments amid reports that this year could be the last time the traditional Christmas meet takes place legally.

A majority of MPs are said to be in support of a motion, due to come before the House of Commons next year, to ban foxhunting.

But yesterday more than 30 horseriders and 400 spectators, the majority in support of the sport, gathered at Malton's Market Square to watch the Middleton Hunt set off.

Mr Houghton Brown said: "I do not think there is any chance the Government will ban the sport.

"There is just too much support for it from the public and there is no way they would dare to do it.

"It is just an election gimmick by the Government; once there has been an election the issue will be forgotten about.

"The Middleton Hunt employs nine people as do hunts across the country; there are too many jobs at stake."

Countryside Alliance spokesman, John Haigh, said there were no reports of incidents of trouble at any hunt meetings in North Yorkshire.

"Everything went off very peacefully and this year a very high number of supporters turned out to cheer many of the hunts on as they embarked," he said.

"Very few anti-hunt supporters turned out at any of the meetings - we had a report of 30 protesters turning up at a meeting in Pontefract, but that was it for the whole of Yorkshire.

"There was no feeling that these were going to be the last Boxing Day meetings either - we are very confident that we can defeat any moves to ban hunting in Parliament."

The Countryside Alliance said thousands across the United Kingdom had shown themselves committed to securing hunting's future, and mocked "excessive boasts" by animal rights organisations, claiming the number of protesters had never exceeded 500.

But the Hunt Saboteurs' Association said it had attempted to disrupt about 100 meets, and the League Against Cruel Sports said its protesters had been at about 20.

Sam Butler, chairman of the Countryside Alliance's Campaign For Hunting, hailed support for the hunts as "visible proof of the strength of feeling in the countryside that a ban on hunting is unnecessary, unpopular and unenforcable".