LLANELLI'S MP has called on the Government to stop delaying and get on with banning the "medieval" use of wild animals in circuses.

Nia Griffith said the Government could easily introduce a ban under section 12 of the 2006 Animal Welfare Act.

The Labour MP said her party had been planning to use this route when it was in Government after a consultation, which ended in March 2010, showed 94 per cent of the those responding favoured such a ban. But the coalition, she said, had been "shilly- shallying".

Ms Griffith said claims the EU would not allow the ban were "a smokescreen" as an EU commissioner had clarified that wild animals in circuses were the responsibility of member states.

Urging the quick introduction of a ban, she said: "Being towed around in cramped cages and made to perform is no way to treat wild animals. It is medieval. The public expect better than that now."

While supportive of an end to the use of animals in circuses, Simon Hart, Conservative MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, has warned that using section 12 to bring in the ban could be challenged in the European Court.

He said: "If we are sensible about regulation, not only can we improve animal welfare standards and move to a situation in which animals in circuses are a thing of the past, but we can do it without putting the taxpayer at risk of having to fork out for a lengthy, time-consuming and very expensive EU challenge."

But MPs have voted to call on the Government to use section 12 to introduce a ban by July 2012.