Smash hit

The leader of Catholics in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, echoed his sentiments by using his Easter Sunday sermon at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh to brand the bill “monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life” which will allow experiments of “Frankenstein proportion”.

Mr Johnson countered that the legislation would allow British scientists to move forward on research to look for treatments for conditions like Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease and diabetes. It would also bring the most modern scientific developments under the “moral and ethical” regulatory framework set up by the original Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act in 1990, he added.

“There is one reason for the research around this controversial issue of inter-species embryos and that is research into preventing some of the worst diseases that we have in this country,” said the Health Secretary.

“We will bring it under a moral and ethical framework that has served this country well since 1990 and put the UK at the leading edge of research into these terrible diseases.”

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BACKGROUND

• Cardinal Keith O’Brien attacks embryo Bill

• Cardinal Keith O'Brien branded a 'liar' by Labour peer

• Catholic ministers to be given embryo 'opt-out'

BACKGROUND

• An embryonic disaster?

• Hope of therapy for Parkinson’s disease

• Matter of Conscience

BACKGROUND

• Q&A: Human-animal embryo research

• Faith and science answer different questions

• Brown compromise over embryo Bill revolt

• 'We are wrong on embryo Bill'

Related Links

• Q&A: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

• 'Iron fist' Brown faces revolt

• Cardinal Keith O'Brien branded a 'liar' by Labour peer

He also stressed that the bill did not provide for hybrid embryos to be implanted in women or animals in order to produce a child, which would remain a criminal offence.

Labour imposed a three-line whip on the bill during its passage through the Lords, as is normal for a piece of Government legislation. Defying the whip in such a division is generally a resigning matter for a minister, and there have been reports that Catholic Cabinet ministers Ms Kelly and Mr Murphy were considering quitting their posts over the bill.

But Mr Brown appeared to hint that he was hoping to find an arrangement which would avoid the need for resignations when he told the Commons earlier this month that “we respect the conscience of every Member of the House in this matter”.

Talks are understood to be ongoing behind the scenes between Labour MPs unhappy with the bill and Chief Whip Geoff Hoon.

Former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers last night warned that the Government risked a backlash from voters if it did not offer a free vote.

“On matters like this I want to reach my own decision and not be instructed how to vote,” said Mr Byers. “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.”

Some Labour backbenchers have voiced frustration at Mr Brown’s failure to close down the issue more swiftly. Thurrock MP Andrew Mackinlay said it was “inevitable” that a free vote would eventually have to be conceded and warned that “irreversible collateral damage” to Labour’s reputation was being caused by the delay.

But Mr Johnson insisted: “This is not dithering... There has never been an occasion when the Government has decided the whipping arrangements for a bill long before the bill has even got a date for its second reading.”

Not a single Cabinet minister has approached him to voice concerns about the provisions of the bill, which was tabled by his department, he said. A decision on how to approach the votes would be taken by the Government whips closer to the date of the second reading.

Mr Johnson left no doubt that ministers were determined to get the bill onto the statute book: “This is a flagship part of the Queen’s Speech, it is a Government bill and we want to see it go forward into legislation.”

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