constituents complained he replied by inviting them to choose "a mere robot" instead. His outspokenness and dedication to constituency work meant that he was reckoned to have a substantial 'personal vote' of constituents who would vote for him despite not supporting his party. Only four horses finished the 1957 Grand National. Johnson deplored this outcome, and he also became vocal in condemning deer hunting after learning that a hind had been drowned by the Devon and Somerset Staghounds after being hunted for five hours. Johnson described it as disgraceful and a practice "which prevents our calling ourselves a civilised nation"; with many Conservative MPs supporting hunting, his remarks had a cool reception. Radical campaigner Johnson announced his decision to stand down from Parliament in April 1957, saying that he found it too difficult to continue as a solicitor and an MP. However, behind his decision was the fact that he had ceased to support the Conservative Party (although in all his time in Parliament he never broke the Conservative whip). Johnson was increasingly distressed by his clashes with Conservative colleagues over animal rights issues (later claiming to have been "sent to Coventry" by colleagues), but also regarded the Conservative Party as having taken a shift to the right which he could not support; he described himself as a "radical". In his last year in Parliament, Johnson again took up against the Grand National after the 1959 race saw only four finishers and one horse put down after breaking its back at Becher's Brook. He sent a telegram to Home Secretary Rab Butler denouncing the "massacre of horses" and demanding immediate legislation to either ban the race or to change the rules so as to remove all danger. Animal rights campaigns After leaving Parliament, Johnson continued as a local solicitor, and directed his political energies towards animal rights campaigning. He worked with Donald Chapman, a Labour MP, going to campaign against fox hunts, which outraged the huntsman. On 29 October 1959 the Southdown hunt with 14 hounds charged into Johnson's garden at Ditchling in Sussex, wrecking the hedges and damaging crops. When one huntsman dismounted and advanced on Johnson brandishing his riding crop and threatening to "teach him a lesson", Johnson urged the man to hit him and promised to keep his hands behind his back if he did. Johnson remarked "I told him it would suit me admirably if he