Tories still split over Section 28
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Your support makes all the difference.Iain Duncan Smith is facing a damaging double rebellion by Tory MPs and peers over his attempt to resolve the party's heated debate on gay rights.
The Conservative leader's moves to settle the row over Section 28 could be scuppered because Tory peers intend to overturn plans by Labour MPs to abolish the law, which bans local authorities from promoting homosexuality.
In an interview with The Independent, the former Tory chairman Lord Tebbit said: "I don't think there's anything wrong with Section 28. I don't think there is any reason to believe that it creates difficulties."
Tory peers would "stand by the concept that it is an improper use of taxpayers' money to seek to embed in young children what many people would regard as a perverse way of life," he said.
Lord Tebbit, once a close ally of Mr Duncan Smith and his predecessor as MP for Chingford, criticised the Tory leader's stance on a range of other issues – including tax cuts, Europe, Iraq, asylum, and positive discrimination for women. Previous attempts by Labour to scrap Section 28 have been blocked in the Lords. The Tories have 213 peers, the largest party grouping in the second chamber, and their leaders believe they could defy the Commons again on the issue next month.
Baroness Blatch, the deputy Tory leader in the Lords, has warned Mr Duncan Smith that the Shadow Cabinet's compromise plan may not go far enough. She is anxious to ensure the guidelines for schools proposed by the Tories would have statutory force and apply to "third parties" visiting schools.
The Tory leadership accepts that Section 28 stigmatises homosexuality but is proposing guidelines under which parents could inspect all sex education material. Heads would have to ballot all parents if a "small but significant" number objected to it.
Nine Tory MPs have signed a Labour amendment to the Local Government Bill calling for Section 28 to be scrapped. Alan Duncan, a Tory frontbench spokesman on foreign affairs, who has also signed the motion, said: "Section 28 is utterly redundant after the passage of the Adoption Bill, which recognises gay life as an actual family relationship."
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