Brown ready for compromise on embryo bill to ensure controversial fertility laws survive

13 April 2012

Gordon Brown has been forced to climbdown and permit Labour MPs to oppose parts of the controversial embryo Bill after he was warned he risked public scorn if he did not allow a free vote.

An unnamed Government official has revealed MPs will be able to vote against some of the Bill as long as it did not affect its passage through Parliament, according to the BBC.

The Prime Minister's move stops short of allowing his party a free vote on the legislation, which allows the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research.

It is thought MPs would instead have to tell the Government about the sections they feel they cannot support as a matter of conscience and gain "permission" to vote against them.

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Alan Johnson later gave the strongest indication yet that some sort of compromise would be struck, as he tried to insist the Cabinet was not split over the laws.

The Health Secretary rejected accusations that Mr Brown was "dithering" but predicted no MP would be forced to vote against their conscience when the Bill comes before the House of Commons later this year. "I believe... once we have discussed all these issues and seen all the safeguards in the bill, that there will not be a split, but there will be an accommodation for those who have a particular sensitivity around this, including those whose sensitivity relates to their faith," he told Sky News.

He added: "Look at what happened in the House of Lords. Find me anybody there who was forced to vote against their conscience. You won't find them and that will be the case in the Commons, I am absolutely convinced of that."

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward also indicated a compromise was in the offing to ensure the Bill would make it onto the statute books.

The Cabinet minister said: "Government business actually requires the Government to get its business through. That is the point of whipping.

"But the Prime Minister is clear about this: he understands and respects that people have very strong views of conscience here, but equally it is the Government's business.

"So what we have got to do is come back with proposals to find a way forward, but equally not lose sight here (of the fact) that we do respect the right of human life."

He added: "I believe it is possible, if we listen to the arguments and we remove the misunderstandings, to find a way forward so the Government can complete its business."

The apparent back-step by the Prime Minister came as he faced growing pressure from MPs and the clergy on the emotive issue, over which at least two Cabinet ministers are thought to have pledged to resign.

Former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers warned Mr Brown would face a backlash from voters if he insisted on imposing a three-line whip.

He told the Sunday Telegraph: "On matters like this I want to reach my own decision and not be instructed how to vote.

"The public will look on in disbelief if a matter as sensitive as the creation of human-animal embryos is made a matter of party policy with the Government instructing its MPs how to vote."

After Mr Johnson's comments, the MP cautiously welcomed the apparent shift from Mr Brown but said he still wanted to know exactly what he was proposing.

He said: "Obviously, we will need to see the details of the Prime Minister's proposal, but I welcome the fact that there are now clear indications that he is moving towards giving Labour Cabinet ministers and other Members of Parliament a free vote on the most sensitive amendments to the bill."

The new laws will allow hybrid human-animal embryos for medical research

He said: "I think Catholics in politics have got to act according to their Catholic convictions, so have other Christians, so have other politicians.

"There are Catholics who feel very strongly about this matter and I am glad that they do.

"Certainly, there are some aspects of this Bill on which I believe there ought to be a free vote, because Catholics and others will want to vote according to their conscience. I don't think it should be subject to the party whip."

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of Scottish Catholics, went even further by delivering a scathing denunciation of the Bill in his Easter Sunday sermon.

Speaking at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, he argued that the planned leglistation amounts to a "monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life" and will allow experiments of "Frankenstein proportion".

In an article in the Sunday Herald, he added: "There is no doubt in my mind that this Bill is one on which all MPs should have a free vote.

"Since the Government have previously allowed free votes on issues such as fox hunting and the docking of dog's tails, I am amazed anyone would suggest otherwise."

The Cardinal also claimed there was little actual evidence that hybrid embryos could lead to cures for diseases.

He wrote: "We continue to be told that experimenting on embryos will lead us to cures and treatments. Yet as the years have gone by not one single treatment or therapy has emerged.

"Just because something can be done doesn't always mean it should be done."

And he questioned why the embryos were banned in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Australia.

"Could it be that the citizens and politicians of those countries care nothing for the chronically ill among them? Perhaps they don't want to develop cures or therapies; perhaps they are simply anti-scientific luddites?" he asked.

"Or could it be that we are wrong and these democracies see no reason to attack the sanctity and dignity of human life when many alternatives exist?"

Downing Street insisted today that nothing had changed about Mr Brown's position and that a decision had yet to be made on the way votes would take place.

A spokesman said: "We will make our decisions on this in the normal way. But let me be absolutely clear - we respect the conscience of every Member of the House in this matter."

Health minister Ben Bradshaw also appeared to signal that there would be no relaxation in Mr Brown's approach.

"I think in this case the Government's absolutely right to try to push this through to the potential benefit of many people in this country," he told the BBC.

'Stupid': Geoff Hoon was attacked for trying to crush revolt over new fertility laws

Labour rebels, including three Roman Catholic Cabinet Ministers – Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy – have so far been told they can abstain, but not vote against the Bill and are said to have warned they would resign rather than back it through Parliament.

The Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, has revealed he has privately advised Labour MPs, including at least one minister, to vote against certain aspects of the Bill.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats have already been granted a free vote on the laws by their respective leaders and Labour's chief whip Geoff Hoon has been approached by several MPs asking if they can also vote with their conscience.

Mr Hoon was branded "stupid" by one senior Labour MP last night for trying to crush the growing revolt.

Thurrock MP Andrew Mackinlay claimed that his refusal to allow Labour MPs to oppose the Bill on the grounds of conscience was "an insult to the intelligence" and showed that Ministers were "totally out of touch" with public opinion.

The backbencher, who is also Catholic, said the attempt to force through the Bill was another example of the Government misjudging the mood of Parliament and the public.

He said: "A growing number of Labour MPs are dismayed and frustrated by Ministers" lack of political antennae.

"They are completely out of touch. The approach taken on the Embryo Bill and the Gurkhas is ridiculous.

"The Government will have to back down in the end but by then the damage will be done."

Mr Mackinlay said allowing Labour MPs to abstain but not vote against the Embryo Bill was "absurd, unbelievably naive and an insult to the intelligence".

He added: "I cannot believe how stupid the Government is being over this. Large numbers of Labour MPs are going to revolt."

Northern Ireland Minister Paul Goggins, another Catholic, said: "Like many others, I am waiting to see whether the Government decides to allow a free vote on certain aspects of the Bill."

Mr Hoon's aides played down the Labour rebellion, claiming only "a handful" of Labour MPs and Ministers had raised concerns over the proposals.

"You will get more Catholic Labour MPs in favour of this Bill than against it," said one official.

But Jim Dobbin, the Catholic Labour MP leading the protests, said: "If they think it's acceptable politically to lose up to ten Ministers then they are naive."

Selby Labour MP John Grogan said Mr Brown would have to climb down.

"It's surprising how long it is taking No10 and the Whips Office to realise that we simply cannot sustain the ministerial resignations which would follow if a free vote is denied.

"It would look totally illiberal for Government whips to try to dragoon Labour MPs through the voting lobbies against their consciences when David Cameron and Nick Clegg have already offered their MPs a free vote."

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