Labour Catholics can vote with their conscience today – but not forever

The free vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which is being opposed by Catholic church leaders in Britain, will do nothing to ease the dilemma facing the three Catholic members of the Cabinet - Ruth Kelly, Paul Murphy and Des Browne.

They can vote with their consciences now, but they will have to vote with the Government three-line whip on the Bill's third reading. Downing Street has repeatedly stressed that it intends to push the Bill through Parliament.

It means that the Catholic members of the Cabinet may vote today for a cut in the upper time limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 20 weeks. But if the Commons votes for the status quo, Catholics will have to hold their noses and vote for retaining the 24-week rule on third reading.

The same applies to stem cell research, 'saviour siblings', and the 'need for a father' amendment which will clarify the law to stop lesbian women being denied fertility treatment in clinics because there is no father in their relationship.

Gordon Brown and Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister who will advise the House on the latest research, all strongly support keeping the time limit at 24 weeks, and are in favour of other controversial aspects of the Bill. But these are issues that for the next 48 hours will cut across party boundaries.

Brown and David Cameron, the Conservative leader, are very close on the issue of stem cell research. Brown has a personal interest: his son, Fraser, has cystic fibrosis, one of the debilitating diseases that one day may be cured through stem cell research. Sensing that at last he had a subject on which he could lead, the PM set out his well-known views at the weekend for supporting the advance of science.

Cameron, whose eldest child Ivan has the neurological condition Ohtahara syndrome and is severely disabled, also supports the science and says his thinking has been influenced by his personal experience. He told Sky TV: "Anyone with children who suffer these sorts of conditions knows how important this work is. But we shouldn't be frightened of having a frank and realistic debate about it in Parliament. If anyone misleads anyone about this Bill then clearly that's wrong."

Cameron warned against church leaders campaigning against the Bill. "There is a danger that people can overstate what is in this Bill." He said the Bill should be debated "calmly and reasonably" in Parliament. "My own view, and I think [that of] many people in the Conservative Party, is that we need to update the legislation. This sort of research is important. We all want to see diseases reduced and problems that children have - birth defects - dealt with."

FIRST POSTED MAY 19, 2008