MPs face pressure over embryo bill

Nov 27 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE’S Catholic MPs will be urged to “put God before Gordon” by voting down controversial new laws to create animal-human embryos for medical research.

Six of the region’s MPs have been invited to meet the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales next week, ahead of debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

The legislation has triggered a storm of protest because it will lift the ban on animal-human hybrids in order to research diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone.

The Catholic Church has also condemned the removal of a doctor’s legal duty to consider “the need for a father” when deciding on suitability for fertility treatment.

The move – to make it easier for lesbian couples to have IVF – “radically undermines the place of the father in a child's life”, Catholics have argued.

Now Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, has invited up to 70 Catholic MPs to discuss the legislation next Wednesday.

They include Joe Benton (Bootle), Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire), Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby), Helen Jones (Warrington North), Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool Walton) and Helen Southworth (Warrington South).

The unprecedented lobbying campaign follows the government’s refusal to bow to Catholic requests to grant Labour MPs a free vote on the Bill.

Both Conservative and Liberal Democrats will enjoy a free vote, but Labour MPs will be expected to vote through a key part of the government’s programme.

That will create particular problems for three of the six MPs listed above, who are all unpaid ministerial aides and must obey the whip – or resign.

Ms Cooper is aide to health minister Ben Bradshaw, Ms Curtis-Thomas to attorney general Baroness Scotland and Ms Jones to public health minister Dawn Primarolo.

Last night, Ms Cooper said: “I do not want to go into the Bill until the time comes, but I cannot be at the meeting for personal reasons.”

Similarly, Ms Jones, who also cannot attend next Wednesday, said: “I’m not prepared to discuss the Bill at the moment.”

Neither Ms Curtis-Thomas, nor any of the other Catholic MPs, could be contacted yesterday.

The Cardinal’s letter asks for the meeting “given the various interests which are likely to come before the House in the new session of Parliament”.

It is seen as signalling a shift towards a more outspoken political role for the Catholic Church.