Brown delays embryo bill 'in bid to sway Catholic votes in by-election'

GORDON Brown, the Prime Minister, yesterday made a play for Catholic voters in the Glasgow East by-election by postponing a decision on new embryo laws.

In a surprise announcement, the government said that a crucial vote on the embryology bill due to take place on Monday would now be delayed until the autumn.

This will help keep the issue – and the threat of changes to the abortion laws – off the agenda before voters go to the polls on 24 July. It also allows the legions of Labour MPs ordered to campaign in Glasgow to avoid having to make a speedy return to London.

Glasgow East has the fifth- highest number of Catholics in Scotland, with more than a third of its voters – some 23,185 adults – declaring themselves Catholics in the last census. The constituency is also home to Celtic Football Club.

Labour is thought to have acted as MPs come under increased pressure from the Catholic church to vote against the bill. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, has again urged them to reject what he has previously described as "Frankenstein" plans.

Mr Brown is well aware that defeat in what was Labour's third safest seat in Scotland would intensify calls for him to quit, following thumping Tory victories in Crewe and Nantwich and in Henley.

Party chiefs will be gambling that avoiding controversy on the embryology bill – which proposes legalising "hybrid" embryos made from a mixture of human and animal cells for scientific research – may safeguard sufficient votes in Glasgow East to give them a narrow victory.

At Westminster, the move was dubbed "Holy Watergate", as Labour was accused of blatant electioneering with its last-minute alterations to the parliamentary timetable.

David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary, told The Scotsman: "I don't think the Prime Minister can afford to alienate a single Labour voter. There is no doubt that this by-election can be very tight. Any objective analysis would lead you to believe this decision was politically motivated."

But the Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris said the government had been right to delay the bill to allow MPs more time to debate up to 60 new amendments. He said suggestions that the bill could influence the by-election were "exaggerated", as the views of neither the Labour candidate nor the SNP one were known.

The Prime Minister has also faced the headache of having to allow Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, to absent herself from voting on the bill to avoid the staunchly Catholic minister having to vote against a key government proposal on conscience grounds.

Other Catholic Cabinet ministers, such as Des Browne, the Scottish and Defence Secretary, and Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, had concerns about the bill but they were expected to back the government on a three-line-whip vote.

The bill's third reading – effectively the crunch vote – had been provisionally tabled for Monday. But when Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons, announced next week's business, it had been replaced in the timetable with moves to tighten the enforcement of the national minimum wage.

Theresa May, the shadow leader of the House, told MPs a "flagship government bill" had been left off the parliamentary agenda "at the last possible moment", and it would now not be debated until October. She asked: "Can (Ms Harman] give a commitment this decision had nothing whatsoever to do with the forthcoming Glasgow East by-election?"

But a Labour Party spokesman who is involved in the by-election campaign said: "We had no involvement in this decision. We had no knowledge of it."

Ms Harman said that because of the shortage of time left before the summer recess, and the number of MPs who wished to speak and propose amendments to the bill, it had been decided that "as much time as possible needs to be found for it" – necessitating a delay.

Mr Brown previously issued a personal plea for MPs to support the bill, and offered a series of free votes at earlier stages to minimise the risk of a ministerial rebellion. At one stage, 12 government members were thought likely to vote against it.

Cardinal O'Brien had described the bill as a "monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life".

Labour stalwart brands Mason 'paranoid and xenophobic'

AN ELDER statesman of the Scottish Labour Party has upped the ante in the Glasgow East by-election by describing the SNP candidate John Mason as "paranoid and xenophobic".

The Scotsman understands that Lord Foulkes' portrayal of Mr Mason "as the true face of the SNP" has the blessing of party leaders in London.

Lord Foulkes' ire was raised by Mr Mason's publicly held views which include describing God Save the Queen as "an anti-Scottish song" and once demanding that a local school took down England flags put up during the last football World Cup.

Lord Foulkes, who spent his political life in Scotland as a councillor, MP and MSP but was born in England, said he was "disgusted" by Mr Mason's views.

"John Mason is clearly paranoid and xenophobic," he said. "This is the true face of the SNP, the nasty one behind the veneer of respectability we see at Holyrood."

But the Nationalists were keen to rebut the attack. An SNP spokeswoman said: "This is another boomerang attack from Lord Foulkes. Labour's original candidate George Ryan has had plenty to say opposing the flying of the Union Jack. Is Foulkes attacking him as well?"