MPs have again voted for a hunt ban, leaving speaker Michael Martin almost certain to invoke the Parliament Act to force it onto the statute book.

The Commons rejected a compromise measure from the Lords that would have allowed hunts to continue under strict license, an option favoured by the prime minister.

After six votes to ban the pursuit in six years it is thought Martin will feel it is time the will of MPs prevails over the upper house.

But pro-hunt campaigners are set to challenge the legality of both the use of the Act and the legislation itself.

MPs voted against the compromise 343 to 175 in a move that will infuriate a large section of the rural community and set the scene for more protests.

Another compromise first set out by rural affairs minister Alun Michael in 2003 and voted for by Tony Blair last night was defeated on a free vote by 321 to 204.

Despite pressure from the prime minister on Cabinet colleagues to follow his lead some, notably Commons leader Peter Hain, still voted for an outright ban.

With the parliamentary session ending tomorrow, the Lords will probably vote for the bill's enforcement to be delayed until December 2007 but could opt for a "kamikaze" approach of bringing forward the ban to within three months, prompting protests during the general election campaign.

Challenge

The Countryside Alliance intend to challenge the use of the Parliament Act in the courts.

But the rural affairs minister said on Wednesday that "the situation at the moment is that for the tenth time in 10 years, the House of Commons has taken a decision by a large majority".

"It is for the House of Lords to respond to that, and if they fail to do so, it is the House of Lords that will provoke the use of the Parliament Act," said Michael.

"The House of Lords has an opportunity now to respond to another common sense proposal the government has put forward, which is to delay a ban until July 2006," he added.

"That delay would allow people to change the sort of activities they are involved in and avoid the sort of animal welfare issues that could come up.

"It is a common sense approach, I hope the House of Lords will accept it."

Blaming the Lords for the prospect of the use of the Parliament Act, Michael said: "They rejected the possibility of compromise last week."

But James Gray, the shadow rural affairs spokesman, accused the government of failing to do enough to back his own previous evidence-based solutions in favour of class prejudice.

The 1911 Parliament Act has only been used three times before most recently to push through the legislation lowering the homosexual age of consent.