Ministers to drop repeal of Rule 28

The Government has backed away from its pledge to repeal the controversial "Section 28" rule, which bans schools from "promoting" homosexuality, over fears that it would be blocked in the Lords.

The Government has backed away from its pledge to repeal the controversial "Section 28" rule, which bans schools from "promoting" homosexuality, over fears that it would be blocked in the Lords.

The Local Government Bill was approved as part of the Queen's Speech programme of legislation for the next session by the Cabinet last Thursday, but it will not include the long-vaunted repeal of the ban.

Ministerial sources said that they wanted to repeal Section 28 - introduced by the Conservatives and hated by gay rights campaigners - but they could not count on it getting through the Lords, and feared it could jeopardise the whole Bill. "It would be blocked in the Lords. But there are other ways of achieving it," said the source.

Ministers are ready to accept a backbench amendment to the Bill to repeal Section 28, but that could be jettisoned if the Lords throw it out. A ministerial source said they were prepared to invoke the Parliament Act to force it through the Lords at a later stage.

The Local Government Bill will allow elected mayors in towns and cities outside London, the creation of cabinet-style government in town halls, and will include measures to clean-up local authority sleaze.

Stonewall, the gay rights campaign, and Ann Keen, the Brentford and Isleworth MP, are among those who have been pressing the Local Government Minister, Hilary Armstrong, to include the repeal of Section 28 in the Bill.

Campaigners for gay rights said they were "taken aback" when told that it would not be included. There was no manifesto commitment to repeal the law, but Jack Cunningham, the former "Cabinet enforcer", was the most recent minister to promise action, telling a dinner on equal rights there was no reason for Section 28 to stay.

Mrs Keen last night attacked Section 28 as a "wicked" rule which prevented young people from seeking advice or discussing their sexuality in schools if they believed they were gay. "It is about health education, and it is about saying that some of the world's most famous inventors and artists were gay," she said. "There is a level of blatant prejudice in the Lords."

The Government is facing a crunch vote in the Lords tomorrow on the third reading of its Bill to remove the right of hereditary peers to speak and vote in Parliament. The Conservatives are due to abstain, but many are ready to oppose the measure.