Ministers vow to overturn 'cottaging' ban

Ministers today vowed to overturn a defeat which saw the House of Lords back moves for a ban on sex in public lavatories.

Fourteen Labour peers rebelled against the Government to back a Tory demand for offences of "cottaging" to be ruled illegal and punishable by up to two years in jail.

After peers voted 133 to 95 to back the amendment, gay rights campaigners said it was homophobic and unnecessary.

The Home Office said ministers would seek to "remedy" the measure when the Sexual Offences Bill returns to the Commons later this month.

The Tories insisted their proposal was aimed at heterosexuals as well as homosexual-activity. Tory frontbencher Baroness Noakes argued that the Bill as drafted by the Home Office would weaken the legal protection against sex in public lavatories because it repeals the offence of gross indecency which is often used to deal with the issue.

The only openly gay peer, Labour's Lord Alli, said the amendment was unnecessary because the history of sex in public lavatories "as it pertains to gay men shows we are in a transition period and that practice is dying out".

Outrage! campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "This new amendment is blatantly homophobic."