A Bill to ban fox-hunting is to be introduced later this week.

Home Secretary Jack Straw is set to table the legislation for its first reading in the Commons on Friday.

MPs are almost certain to debate the Bill at second reading stage before the Christmas recess.

They will be given a free vote on an outright ban, statutory licensing of hunts or the existing voluntary regulations.

Brighton Kemp Town MP Des Turner was delighted when told the Government was pressing ahead with the legislation within days of it being announced in the Queen's Speech today. The Labour MP said: "It's great news.

"If the Lords have got any sense they will let it through rather than defy the will of the people."

The Government wants to make fox-hunting a General Election issue.

It has timetabled the Bill so it is likely to be blocked in the Lords in the spring, when the election is expected to be held.

Ministers believe the spectacle of unelected peers, many of them Conservatives, defying the Commons over a fox-hunting ban will stir apathetic Labour supporters into voting.

Mr Straw is prepared to guillotine debates in the Commons to stop MPs who support hunting from talking out the legislation.

He is also willing to invoke the Parliament Act to overrule the Lords, though any ban is highly unlikely before the election.

In 1997, 411 MPs backed Worcester Labour MP Mike Foster's Private Member's Bill to outlaw hunting with dogs but it was blocked in the Commons by pro-hunt MPs.

Meanwhile thousands of leaseholders in Brighton and Hove will be left disappointed today after the Government delayed reforms to the system.

Ministers have limited the parliamentary programme because of the General Election, which is likely to be in May.