The man behind a petition against using animal fat in new £5 notes wants to take his case directly to the Bank of England.

Doug Maw, 47, a hotel worker from Askin Street, Keswick, started the petition last week against the inclusion of tallow in the new tender, made by Wigton-based Innovia.

This followed a furious reaction from vegetarian, vegans and members of some religions that the new polymer notes contain the suet derivative.

Mr Maw, who has been a vegan tow two decades, has been overwhelmed by the response - on Friday more than 120,000 people had put their names to the document.

He plans to take it down this week and hand it over to the Government and also hopes he will be able to speak to officials from the Bank - which has announced it will look for alternatives to tallow - to discuss the cause.

Mr Maw became a vegan while studying philosophy.

He said: "My reasons for being a vegan are purely ethical. I wanted to live a positive lifestyle and if you love animals you can't kill them.
"The dairy industry is as bad as the meat industry so it wasn't enough just to go vegetarian."

He has felt the benefit of turning to this lifestyle, which also means not using animal products in any capacity.

"It has not just been my health, I also have a conscience which is as clean as it can be though I still do things I regret but not when it comes to lifestyle."

Professor David Solomon, the inventor of the polymer note, has hit out at the petition, branding is "stupid" in an interview on Australian radio where he described the amounts of tallow in the notes as "trivial".

"Animals should not be used at all for a product," Mr Maw said.

"I can't criticise him for saying it though because it is the state of the world."

He pointed out that Hindus are not supposed to touch beef but have to put a beef product in their wallets.

Mr Maw added that he was pleased the Bank was looking into the subject but wanted more details about the action they were going to take.

He admitted he was "not a polymer expert" and hoped to also be able to speak to Innovia.

A Bank of England spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that the polymer pellet from which the base substrate is made contains a trace of a substance known as tallow.

"Tallow is derived from animal fats (suet) and is a substance that is also widely used in the manufacture of candles and soap."