THE Bishop of Blackburn today revealed how he withdrew a controversial amendment during last night's House of Lords debate on Section 28 - because he got the right assurances from the Government.

Peers voted by 210 to 165 in favour of keeping the law preventing the promotion of homosexuality in schools during the committee stage of the Local Government Bill. The Bishop, the Rt Rev Alan Chesters, had intended to table his compromise amendment which ignored the issue of gay sex and promoted marriage over casual sex.

But he said today that the amendment was withdrawn after he received assurances from ministers that they were willing to work with church communities to look at the whole set of guidelines on sex education.

Bishop Chesters said: "The fundamental building block of our society is marriage and the family.

"I got what I wanted from Government ministers, which was an assurance that we could work together."

The Government was today deciding how to respond to the defeat. It claims that Section 28 - introduced under Margaret Thatcher's Government - prevents teachers from halting the bullying of gay pupils.

But the move sparked massive opposition from church leaders and family groups who argue it would undermine the family and lead to children receiving inappropriate information.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.