The government is trying to find a solution to banning depictions of step-incest in online pornography amid warnings of a “significant rebellion” from female MPs.
Ministers have been accused of “losing the plot” after promising to ban depictions of incest in online porn but not step-incest.
Politics Live: Reeves ready to support release of oil reserves
The debate is part of efforts to crackdown on harmful pornographic content online, following a review by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin.
Her amendment calling for step-incest to be included in the ban was backed by 144 votes to 143 in the House of Lords last week, meaning it could now face a vote in the Commons.
Sky News understands efforts are ongoing to find a way around what ministers regard as a key complication – that relationships between adult step relatives are not illegal in real life.
Ministers believe this will make banning their depiction in pornography difficult to enforce.
Politics latest: Reeves ready to support release of oil reserves – as she warns of Iran war inflation
Elon Musk’s X grilled over ‘appalling and offensive’ Grok posts on Hillsborough
Bitter break-up for Trump and Starmer – but polling suggests PM on side of public opinion
However a “significant number” of female Labour MPs are prepared to rebel if the government does not back a ban, Sky News has been told.
One senior MP said the government’s argument “doesn’t pass the sniff test” as half of all sexual abuse cases against children are perpetrated by step-parents.
They told Sky News: “Once you are arguing about the detail you have lost the plot, it’s the principle.
“No one wants to go through the lobby and vote for step-incest porn.
“If the Conservatives are minded to back the [Bertin] amendment, it wouldn’t take huge numbers to get to a defeat.”
Another MP described the row as “more cockup than reasoning”, saying the government does support the ban in principle but “took their eye off the ball”.
“I think we will get to the right place”, they said.
The Labour leadership is on thin ice with female MPs after the Peter Mandelson and Matthew Doyle scandals and wider concerns about a Number 10 “boys club”.
Sir Keir Starmer has made halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) one of his main missions in government.
He is facing cross-party calls to regulate online pornography as part of that plan.
Baroness Bertin’s review, commissioned by the previous Conservative administration, found content that is banned offline is still allowed online.
The review made 32 recommendations in total, including banning degrading, violent and misogynistic content.
Ministers have already backed a ban on strangulation pornography, which the review found was establishing it as a sexual norm. Non-fatal strangulation is an offence in its own right, but it is not currently illegal to show it online.
The new offence will be included in the Crime and Policing Bill making its way through parliament.
Last week, the government also wrote into the bill a ban on possessing or publishing pornographic images of sex between relatives.
Speaking for the government, justice minister Baroness Levitt said the offence won’t include step-relationships as while they are “controversial” they are “not illegal in real life”.
In total peers defeated six defeats on the government, including over banning adult pornography styled to look like a child.
Meanwhile, peers agreed to a government-backed plan to make it a criminal offence to screenshot or copy an intimate image without consent that a victim has shared only temporarily.
The bill faces further scrutiny in the Lords, and both Houses must agree the final draft before it can become law.
Follow our channel and never miss an update
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
A government spokesperson said: “Online abuse against women and girls has developed at a terrifying pace over the last decade, and the law needs to adapt. That’s why we are determined to tackle dangerous and degrading pornography, part of our goal to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
“We are actively and constructively working across government to develop an effective response to these amendments to deliver on that.”
