Campaigners get their way?

Government plans to lower age of homosexual consent

The initial step is likely to come from the Government later this month, with an announcement that it will not defend a test case before the European Court of Human Rights. The next step would be a free vote in the Commons.

It is alleged in the test case that British law discriminates against homosexuals by setting a different age of consent for them. Ministers appear to have decided to overturn the policy of their Conservative predecessors by not defending the law as it now stands.

A spokeswoman for the gay pressure group, Stonewall, welcomed the development. "We were always very hopeful that a new Labour government would concede the principle of equality and it looks as if this is going to happen," said Angela Mason. "Many individuals in the Labour party have been committed for a long time to equality," she said on the BBC's Today programme.

Angela Mason on the Today programme welcoming the proposals

Widdecombe:against "permissive" legislation

Government should stick to the law Parliament decided, says Widdecombe

"I would have preferred the Government to have stuck to the law the British Parliament decided it wanted rather than to have caved in," she told the programme. "The fact is that Labour governments do tend to introduce permissive legislation, and it looks as though this one won't be any different."

She said her main concern was for "young people going through times of uncertainty", adding "The laws that society have are a statement of what we want to see, - If you simply say, well, if something goes on then we'll just give it society's blessing anyway, then we are putting our imprimatur on something which personally I don't want us to."

If as many expect, homosexual rights campaigners win, they are likely then to turn their attention to the rights of gays in the armed forces. Two more cases come before European courts on that issue in the autumn.