Gay adoption law given rubber stamp

The Government was accused of "an abuse of parliamentary democracy" yesterday after regulations were passed by MPs making it illegal for publicly funded adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.

The ruling was among new regulations that MPs were asked to rubber stamp on a quiet day when many had not returned from their constituencies. Commons rules barred them from debating the regulation or trying to change the wording.

With feelings running high over what church leaders regard as a matter of conscience, government whips have privately warned that they risk defeat when the regulations are laid before the House of Lords tomorrow.

The regulation was debated last week by MPs.

"It is, surely, an abuse of parliamentary democracy that these regulations are being considered by Parliament only through a hurriedly arranged and very brief meeting of 16 appointed MPs, and a short debate in the House of Lords," Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said.

The main Catholic adoption agencies have threatened to close down rather than abide by the regulation, which would require them to say in their publicity material that they will not discriminate against gay couples. More than 40 members of the General Synod have sent an open letter to the 26 Church of England bishops in the House of Lords urging them to oppose the measure.

Julian Brazier, who heads the all-party group on adoption, said few gay couples would approach a Catholic agency.

He said: "It's very sad, and not just that it went through without debate. This is going to take out of the picture the best adoption organisation, the organisation that is best at finding homes for the most damaged children, at a time when the numbers of successful adoptions are on the way down."