THE British government pledged yesterday it would "fight every inch of the way" to retain the ban on homosexuals serving in the armed services, Rachel Borrill reports from London.
The Armed Forces Minister, Mr Nicholas Soames, said the government believed the ban should remain for defensive reasons as a change might lead to a morale problem. He expressed confidence that it would be upheld in the European Court of Human Rights.
"Accordingly, we will fight this case every inch of the way if we have to. We would argue with extreme robustness that relaxing the ban would affect the morale, cohesion and effectiveness of our armed forces," he added.
More than 13,500 service people completed questionnaires compiled by the Homosexuality Policy Assessment team, which reviewed the ban on behalf of the government. The majority who responded supported the ban because they did not consider homosexuality "normal" or "natural".
The policy team concluded that homosexuals are "incompatible" with service life. "The justification for the present policy has been overwhelmingly endorsed by a demonstrated consensus of the profession best able to judge it."
However, Outrage, the gay rights organisation, accused the, Ministry of Defence of "rigging the results and demanded an independent review of the ban. The questions were loaded, it said.