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London: The row over the government's flagship Embryology Bill threatened to escalate into one of the most serious crises of Gordon Brown's premiership on Sunday night as a war of words erupted between senior Labour figures and the Roman Catholic Church.
A succession of senior Catholic churchmen used their Easter addresses to criticise the legislation and intensify the pressure on Brown to allow his Catholic MPs a free vote when the Commons debates the Bill later this year.
But Brown is refusing to let the MPs and ministers vote against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which he believes will lead to major advances in medicine and the treatment of fatal diseases.
The row escalated significantly on Sunday, when senior Labour MPs and peers accused the Catholic Church of trying to "dictate government policy" and of "scaremongering" - particularly over measures allowing the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos.
Lord Robert Winston, a Labour peer and one of the foremost authorities on reproductive health, said the Church risked "destroying its probity" with "overblown" statements about the controversial legislation.
However, with five million Catholics in Britain, such a public row risks causing significant political damage to Labour when the party is languishing in the polls.
There is considerable disquiet over the legislation within Labour - notably among three Catholic Cabinet ministers - and a sustained row, culminating in a serious parliamentary rebellion could scupper the new laws and threaten the prime minister's authority. On Sunday, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, became the most senior church figure to call on Brown to sanction a free "conscience" vote of MPs on the Bill.
"I think Catholics in politics have got to act according to their Catholic convictions, so have other Christians, so have other politicians," he said. "There are Catholics who feel very strongly about this matter and I am glad that they do.
Backlash risk
"Certainly, there are some aspects of this Bill on which I believe there ought to be a free vote, because Catholics and others will want to vote according to their conscience. I don't think it should be subject to the party whip."
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the leaders of the other two main parties, have agreed to grant their MPs a free vote.
The former Labour Cabinet minister Stephen Byers has warned that the government risked a backlash from voters if it did not agree to a free vote.
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