A MUCH-LOVED garden visitor, known for its prickles and noisy love life, has been rejected by a Cumbrian MP as a potential national icon.

Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border, was dragged into a prickly debate when he rejected a fellow Conservative’s calls to make the humble hedgehog a “designated national species”.

Mr Stewart, who is also Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was responding to calls by fellow MP Oliver Colvile - a self-proclaimed ‘hedgehog champion’ keen to draw attention to the decline in hedgehog numbers, and predation by badgers.

During a House of Commons debate on the subject, Mr Colvile - MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport - said hedgehog numbers had declined by a third in the last decade.

He said: "The principal reason for this prickly animal's decline is due to the loss of habitats.

"Likely factors for the hedgehog demise are the loss of permanent grassland, larger field sizes, use of pesticides and herbicides and a reduction of hedgerow quality."

Adopting it as the symbolic animal of the nation might help inspire the public to protect it, he said.

The House heard how people could help protect hedgehogs by simple measures such as leaving gaps in hedges and fences so they did not become trapped in gardens.

Mr Stewart discussed our changing scientific understanding of the hedgehog, and counselled against believing that we yet fully understand their eccentric behaviour - from ‘self-anointing’ with saliva to hibernating in summer in hot countries.

He said that their conflicts with badgers and arctic tern, showed the difficulty of striking a balance between the needs of different species - many of which have vocal public champions.

However, although Mr Stewart said he had great respect for the animal, he added: “Do we want to have as our national symbol an animal which, when confronted with danger, rolls over into a little ball and puts its spikes up?

“Do we want to have as our national symbol an animal that sleeps for six months of the year?”

He said it would be much better to keep the lion as the nation’s mammalian mascot “which is majestic, courageous and proud”.