The Keir bears?

There has been no time to paws in the weeks since Sir Keir Starmer was officially named prime minister and vowed to get tough on government spending.

This has resulted this week in the unpopuar cut to the winter fuel allowence. But we can suggest one saving that we think will be hugely popular with the public - and which is already on the PM's wish list. 

Labour has already committed to conduct “an immediate review of the possible alternatives to [the] bear fur” used for the caps worn by the King’s Guard.

Perish

The eye-watering cost of these purely ornamental caps mean they are an ideal place to start if Starmer wants to prove that taxpayer funds are in good hands.

In recent years, the price of each bearskin cap purchased by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the King’s Guard jumped by more than 30 per cent – to a whopping £2,040 each. 

The MoD has in fact spent more than £1 million of taxpayers’ money on the caps in the past nine years alone, including buying 24 in 2023. But as shocking as the cost is, it pales in comparison to the cruelty involved in producing the caps.

PETA released a video exposé this year revealing that bears in Canada are lured from their homes with biscuits and bagels before being shot, sometimes with high-powered crossbows. 

Many are shot several times and escape only to die slowly and painfully before being found by hunters who followed their bloody trail. Others are left to perish from blood loss, infection, starvation, or dehydration. The bears are then disembowelled and dismembered. 

Fur

Killing these sensitive individuals – who, like other animals, enjoy play and value familial bonds – using crossbows is so cruel, it’s been outlawed in the UK since 1981. Yet the UK government supports this slaughter overseas and incentivises hunters by continuing to buy caps made from these bears’ fur.

Happily for Starmer, most of the heavy lifting when it comes to upgrading the King’s Guard’s headwear has already been done. 

PETA has developed a superior faux bear fur in collaboration with luxury faux furrier ECOPEL, which has offered the material to the MoD for free for a decade and promised that it will always be cheaper than bear fur.

What’s more, test reports show that the faux bearskin that PETA and ECOPEL created performs as well as – or better than – bear fur in all five of the areas the MoD stipulated for an alternative material. 

Alternative

This includes being waterproof and drying faster than real fur - which is vital, given that the guards at Buckingham Palace must withstand an average of 155 days of rain per year! 

As for the appeal to tradition, a Labour representative rightly stated recently with regard to the caps that it’s “incredibly important that traditions develop and adapt if they are to survive”. 

Moreover, unlike their bloody counterparts, the faux-fur caps spare bears and public funds. Making the switch is a no-brainer.

The developed the fur alternative was part of our two-decade-long campaign against the use of fur for the caps - which included sending a “bear” to shadow Starmer as he voted.

Starve

After 14 years of opposition rule, Starmer has a big job ahead to shape the UK he envisions. But when it comes to switching out the MoD’s ghastly bearskin headdresses for superior faux-fur upgrades, it couldn’t be easier. 

The majority – 75 per cent – of the population views the bearskin caps as a poor use of government funds, and a better alternative already exists and is readily available. 

The monetary savings that would result from the shift could be redirected towards achieving Labour’s other promises, like rebuilding the NHS.

Starmer’s predecessors failed to take PETA up on its offer of a cruelty – and cost – free upgrade to bear fur. Hopefully, for the sake of fed-up taxpayers – and most importantly, the bear cubs left to starve after their mothers are shot – our new PM won’t make the same mistake. 

This Author

Elisa Allen is vice president of programmes and operations at PETA.