THE leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics was last night accused of “lying” in comments that he made about controversial embryo research legislation.

Professor Lord Robert Winston, the Labour peer, made the claim as Gordon Brown came under unprecedented pressure to cave in over the issue.

Stephen Byers, the former cabinet minister, intervened in the row by attacking Downing Street's plans to deny Labour MPs a free vote on the bill.

Byers' intervention follows an attack on the proposed legislation by Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Scottish Catholic church. He will use his Easter Sunday sermon today to accuse Brown of “an unprecedented attack on the sanctity and dignity of human life”, warning that the research could lead to the creation of hybrid babies and experiments of “Frankenstein proportions”.

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Winston, one of the world's foremost authorities on human reproductive health, said that the cardinal was deliberately misleading the public.

He told The Sunday Times: “His [O'Brien's] statements are lying. They are misleading and I'm afraid that when the church for good motives tells untruths it brings discredit upon itself.

[]“I have huge respect for the Catholic church, which does great good, but it will be destroying its probity with overblown statements of this kind.”

Byers is the most senior Labour figure yet to attack Brown's uncompromising approach, which could lead to several cabinet resignations.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will allow scientists researching treatments for diseases such as multiple sclerosis to create human-animal hybrid embryos. Opponents, led by the Catholic church, argue that such experiments interfere with the sanctity of life.

Byers, a former transport secretary, called for a compromise. “The public would 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 ministers and MPs how to vote,” he said.

He urged Brown to relent and allow free votes on selected amendments so that potential rebel ministers and backbench MPs would no longer face a moral dilemma.

Byers, who describes himself as non-practising Methodist, said: “As a Labour MP who is not a Catholic, I believe it is important that while Labour MPs should support the government at the second reading of the bill, we should be given a free vote on a limited number of amendments when they are put forward at a later date.”

Researchers are seeking permission to use animal eggs because of the shortage of human eggs. They would remove the nucleus of the animal cell and replace it with a nucleus taken from a human cell. It can then grow and divide like a normal embryo, generating stem cells that can be harvested by scientists. The stem cells have the potential to become almost any type of cell within the body and it might be possible to use them to create a “repair kit” for humans.

A number of Catholic ministers are believed to have told the whips that they would consider their future if forced to vote with the government.

These include Paul Murphy, the Welsh secretary who is a papal knight of St Gregory, Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary who is a member of Opus Dei, the Catholic sect, and Des Browne, the defence secretary.

A spokesman for the Catholic church said: “If anyone is guilty of overblown hype it's Professor Winston and his colleagues favouring embryonic stem cells instead of adult stem cells.

“I think most reasonable people would say when you combine an animal embryo and a human embryo that is by definition monstrous.”

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