MP Jim Fitzpatrick is backing a global campaign to stop elephants in the wild being slaughtered for their ivory tusks.

The Poplar & Limehouse MP attended the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s campaign launched at the House of Commons.

“We must protect elephants from the ivory trade,” he urged. “I was dismayed to learn that elephant populations are being slaughtered at an alarming rate—largely to meet China’s consumer demand for ivory.”

He posed with a confiscated tusk to highlight the issue and get Britain to take the lead in stopping elephants being hunted by ivory poachers. As many as 650 elephants were butchered in a national park in Cameroon in just two months this year, MPs were told.