Hoteliers are to be banned by law from turning away gay couples, it is revealed today.
Equalities Minister Jacqui Smith has said that a single equalities Act forbidding discrimination against homosexuals in goods and services is to be introduced.
Last month Tom Forrest, owner of the Cromasaig Guesthouse in Kinlochwe, refused a bedroom to a gay couple. Visit Scotland, the tourist authority which had recommended the guesthouse, apologised publicly but the couple had no legal redress.
Ms Smith told a Department of Trade and Industry seminar that the new Equality and Human Rights Commission, set up to combat all forms of discrimination, will draft a new law to "meet the needs of modern Britain".