The British government yesterday flatly rejected Conservative suggestions that ministers are considering lowering the age of heterosexual consent from 16 to 14.
The Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, was forced to make the denial following claims by the Tory peer, Baroness Young, that a Home Office working party would look at the proposal, including relaxing the laws on sado-masochistic sex and treating under-age prostitutes as victims rather than criminals, when it begins deliberations in the autumn.
Mr Straw described the claims as "absolute nonsense" and said the government was considering a range of measures designed to strengthen the family, clarify laws on sexual offences and carry forward the decision to equalise the age of homosexual consent, despite being rejected by peers.
"The government has never considered lowering the heterosexual age of consent to 14 and has no plans to do so in the future. There is no reason to move away from the present age of consent, which is set at 16," Mr Straw said.
The Home Office Minister, Mr Alun Michael, also insisted there was no basis to the claims, despite a claim by a Tory party spokesman, quoting "informal soundings", that a shift in the law on heterosexual consent could form part of the government's comprehensive review of the laws concerning sexual issues.
Writing in the Daily Mail yesterday, Lady Young said she regarded lowering the age of heterosexual consent as a "retrograde step and quite wrong". "Most responsible parents would not want their teenage daughters to get married to a 35-year-old man," she said, describing teenage pregnancies as "bad for the girls and absolutely disastrous for the babies".
Despite the government's insistence that the claims are just fantasy, a Conservative party spokesman said the party had "genuine concerns" about the issue.
A spokeswoman for the pressure group, Youth and Family Concern, Ms Valerie Riches, described any attempt to lower the age of heterosexual consent as "disastrous".