Sam Browfan

Excl: Ministers are facing a rebellion over plans to curb degrading pornography after the government announced it would ban incest porn but allow material depicting “step-incest” relationships to remain legal. Senior Labour women told The Times they felt “betrayed” by the government and would not vote down an amendment which forced ministers to go further. The government confirmed the policy during debates on the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Lords, where ministers introduced amendments to criminalise the possession or publication of pornographic images depicting sexual activity between close family members. Ministers said the move implemented one of the key recommendations from the independent review of pornography led by Baroness Bertin. However, the government confirmed that the offence would not apply to material depicting sexual relationships between step-relatives, and were then defeated with peers backing Bertin's amendment which went further. Multiple senior women in the party said the government would face a rebellion when the Bill returned to the Commons if they attempted to remove Bertin’s amendment. One told The Times: “I feel quite betrayed by it, how they pretended they were pushing ahead and accepting all of Gabby [Bertin’s] recommendations, only to whip us to back step-incest. I’ve never heard of anything like it.” A senior MP added: “If they think women who have been campaigning for years are going to toddle through the lobbies to say ‘yes actually step-incest porn is okay’ then they’re even less connected from reality than I thought.” An MoJ spokesman said: “We will reflect on the debates so far, and continue our work until we have fulfilled our promise to halve violence against women and girls.”