Lost species to be released as Labour seeks to stave off Greens’ election threat

Wild beavers released into a pond in a wet woodland nature reserve at the Holnicote Estate in Minehead, Somerset, this month. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

White-tailed eagles, pine martens and beavers will be released across England before the May elections as the Labour government attempts to staunch the flow of nature-loving voters to the Green party.

Plans to reintroduce these lost species to the country have been mooted for years, but the previous Conservative government failed to get them over the line after opposition from landowners and its own MPs.