Theresa May
Prime minister Theresa May launched the Conservative Party manifesto 2017 in Halifax. Image from UK Home Office via Wikimedia Commons.

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Instead, the much-anticipated Conservative Party manifesto for the 2017 General Election contains a general pledge to work with international organisations to protect endangered species and the marine environment.

It follows lobbying of politicians and civil servants by antiques industry trade bodies for the 2017 manifesto to have a more qualified version of the 2015 'total ban' pledge, or to remove it altogether. 

Yesterday the Liberal Democrats Party promised to provide “greater resources for international environmental co-operation… on actions to tackle illegal and unsustainable trade in timber, wildlife, ivory and fish”.

However the Labour Party has for the first time pledged to introduce a “total ban on ivory trading”.