RSPCA vice president, Queen legend Brian May, has quit over “damning evidence” of animal welfare failings at ‘RSPCA Assured’-certified farms.

The food certification covers almost 4,000 farms and supermarkets, in a bid to reassure consumers that the meat, egg or dairy product they are purchasing has adhered to a high animal welfare standard.

Supermarkets signed up to the scheme and market their products as ‘RSPCA Assured’ include Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

However, following allegations of overcrowding, poor hygiene and physical abuse of livestock by farm workers on over 40 certified farms, vice president May said he had “no other option” but to step down, and called for the scheme to be scrapped.

Taking to Instagram to announce his sudden resignation, May said: “It is with profound sadness and not without massive soul-searching that today I have to offer my resignation as a vice-president of the RSPCA.”

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“You have kept me informed through the Save Me Trust of complaints that have been levelled in recent months at the RSPCA over appallingly bad standards of animal welfare in member farms of the RSPCA Assured scheme.

“I have understood that the RSPCA needed time to evaluate the evidence and make decisions on action to be taken. But as more and more damning evidence comes to light, I find the RSPCA’s response completely inadequate”.

The former Queen guitarist also described the ‘RSPCA Assured’ scheme as a failure, and called for it to be axed.

His comments follow animal activists groups earlier this week revealing the findings of their own investigations of over 200 farms in the scheme, and urging president Chris Packham to step down.

However a joint statement published by Packham and fellow vice-president Caroline Lucas said it would be “dishonourable and disingenuous” for them to do so until they had seen the findings of a “full and independent review”.

Their statement comes despite a number of leading figures calling for the initiative to be scrapped in recent days, including celebrities Ricky Gervais, Bryan Adams and Joanna Lumley.