If government ministers and civil servants are grey squirrels, they may think they can rest easy – the predatory pine marten in the Westminster jungle is leaving them in peace.

A campaigner who has “created a landscape of fear” over the authorities’ failure to protect nature is stepping back from Wild Justice to spend more time with the wildlife – and grandchildren – in his garden.

But Mark Avery has vowed that the campaign group he co-founded with Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay six years ago will redouble its efforts to pounce on broken government promises and law enforcement that fails to restore biodiversity in Britain.