Cracked campaign calls on Keir Starmer for EGG-sit strategy on caged hens

Campaigners descended on Parliament Square today demanding an end to the “cruel and outdated” caging of hens, as animal welfare charity Viva! staged a passionate rally in support of its hard-hitting Cracked campaign.

Protesters gathered opposite the Houses of Parliament carrying placards and banners calling on ministers to turn promises of cage reform into binding law, warning that millions of birds remain trapped in conditions they described as “medieval” despite years of public outrage over factory farming.

At the centre of the demonstration was campaigner and Viva! founder Juliet Gellatley, who delivered an emotional speech condemning the continued use of so-called “enriched” colony cages in the British egg industry.

Speaking to crowds in Parliament Square, she said: “These are intelligent, curious social beings with as much right to be here as you or I, she wants to scratch, she wants to dust bathe, she wants to stretch her wings feel the sunlight and feel the wind whistling through her feathers, she wants to make choices, we all need to make our own choices. She wants to live.”

The rally comes amid growing pressure on the Government over its public consultation on plans to phase out cages for laying hens, pullets and breeder layers. The consultation, issued jointly by Defra and devolved administrations, follows years of campaigning from animal welfare groups demanding an outright ban.

While battery cages were outlawed in 2012, campaigners argue they were simply replaced with slightly modified “enriched” cages, where up to 80 hens can still be crammed together with barely more usable space than a sheet of A4 paper.

According to Viva!, more than seven million hens in the UK remain confined in cage systems, while millions more are housed in intensive indoor or so-called “free range” systems where many birds never step outside despite marketing imagery suggesting otherwise.

The charity’s Cracked campaign, fronted by Juliet Gellatley and her son Jazz, has involved undercover investigations into egg farms across Britain. Campaigners say the findings expose an industry built on “systemic suffering”, with hens bred to lay unnaturally high numbers of eggs before being slaughtered at around 18 months old when productivity declines.

The campaign also highlights the killing of male chicks, with an estimated 40 to 45 million day-old males destroyed in the UK every year because they cannot lay eggs and are considered commercially worthless.

Among those at the Westminster rally was Animal News Agency & Wildlife Guardian campaigner Dr Jane Washington-Evans, who sent a plea to MPs to help cut the cruelty without delay;

Dr Washington Evans said: “People are increasingly horrified when they learn what hens are still enduring behind closed doors in Britain. These birds are sentient, emotionally complex animals, yet millions spend their entire lives unable to behave naturally. 

"Future generations will look back in disbelief that we allowed this suffering to continue for so long. I send a plea to the Government to act now, now is the time to show genuine moral and moral and ethical leadership and finally consign cages to history.”

Campaigners fear that although Labour has pledged to consult on ending cages, the proposed timelines are too long .

Viva! is now calling on ministers to legislate for a full cage ban before 2029 and to introduce import standards preventing eggs produced in cage systems overseas from entering the UK market.