By Jess McCabe | 29 January 2007, 19:27

Tony Blair has said that Catholic adoption agencies will not be allowed to discriminate against gay potential adopters.

The Guardian reports that the Prime Minister has said agencies will have until 2008 to put the law - which bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation for those offering goods and services.

Until then, the agencies - which the Church has threatened to shut down - will have to refer gay adopters to other agencies. Ones which don’t put their own bigotry before the welfare of the children they are meant to be finding homes for, perhaps?

In another piece of good news, the Labour party will not get a free vote on the issue - solidifying the government’s stance as anti-discrimination. It’s just a shame that we’ve had to put up with all this shilly-shallying to get to this point, and from a Labour government.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has typically tried to please both sides - insisting that he is against an exception, while promising his MPs a free vote. And not curtailing the voice of strong critics, such as David Davis.

Mr Cameron’s frontbench colleague, David Davis, has already indicated his opposition to the proposals and said over the weekend he would “almost definitely” vote for an exemption to the Equality Act for Catholic adoption agencies.