Tears and fury as Tory bars pardons for living gay men

‘Fear perception bill condoned child sex’

MPs reacted with furywhen a minister scuppered the progress of proposals for an automatic pardon for gay men convicted of now-abolished sex offences.

Labour’s Chris Bryant was close to tears as he joined fellowMPs inurging theUKGovernment to pardon all living gay men convicted of crimes no longer on the statute books.

But JusticeMinister Sam Gyimah spoke for more than 20 minutes at the end of the debate to prevent a so- called “Turing Bill” brought forward by the SNP’s John Nicolson from being put to a vote.

The government announced on Thursday plans for thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of out-of-date offences to be posthumously pardoned.

ButMr Nicolson brought forward a private member’s billwhichsought togo further, with an automatic pardon for the living.

Tory former justice minister Crispin Blunt warned the government’s proposals did not have the desired “symbolic effect”, while party colleague Nigel Adams labelled ministers “a little bit slippery”.

Mr Gyimah urged Mr Nicolson to withdraw the bill and work with the government, but the SNP MP accused ministers of trying to “hijack” his legislation.

Mr Gyimah rose to his feet with about 25 minutes of the debate left and spoke until 2.30pm, denying MPs a vote.

Mr Gyimah was heckled as the seconds ticked down and proceedings ended.

The debate was punctuated by emotional speeches fromMPs as they urged the government to support Mr Nicolson’s Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc) Bill during its second reading.

Mr Bryant recalled gay and bisexual MPs who “faced down” Adolf Hitler, insisting they and others should receive “something that feels like an apology”.

Mr Gyimah said: “Aswell as honouring the dead (Mr Nicolson) seeksapardonfor the living. We have developed a way to do this without giving any perception that the pardon covers perpetrators of sex with a minor or non-consensual sex.

“What I would like to do today is to make a full and open offer to the honourable member to work with officials in the Ministry of Justice and the HomeOffice and Stonewall to give real effect to this pardon for the dead and the living as fairly and quickly as possible.”

Mr Nicolson said he had accepted an offer of help from the government in June and there had been “plenty of time to chat”.

FURIOUS: Labour former minister Chris Bryant delivering an emotional speech