Lesbian equal parent plans rapped

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith spoke out against plans to allow lesbian couples to become joint legal parents of children conceived used donated sperm or eggs.

His comments, in an article for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, came as the proposals are due to come before the House of Lords in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill on Monday.

The paper claimed that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, would also speak against the Bill, announced in this month's Queen's Speech to the dismay of family campaigners.

Mr Duncan Smith called for Parliament to reject the Bill, saying it would remove the requirement for a father.

"Another nail will have been hammered into the coffin of the traditional family," he wrote.

"And another blow will have been struck against fatherhood.

"This move could not have come at a worse time. Just as we are beginning to appreciate the vital role fathers play in the successful upbringing of children, Labour ministers are sending out the utterly wrong signal that fathers don't matter."

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, said the Bill would merely extend the right already available to heterosexuals.

"At a time when three million children in this country are growing up in single-parent households, it seems odd there should be this obsession with a few hundred who have an opportunity to have a second loving parent," he added.