Controversial plans by the Government to sell the morning-after pill over the counter faced a last-minute hurdle yesterday when the Tories tried to block

Controversial plans by the Government to sell the morning-after pill over the counter faced a last-minute hurdle yesterday when the Tories tried to block the move. Under Department of Health proposals to cut the number of unwanted pregnancies, the pill will be available without prescription to women over 16 for the first time from 1 January. But William Hague and Liam Fox, the shadow Health Secretary, were expected to challenge a parliamentary statutory instrument enacting the plan. The rare call for a vote on a statutory instrument could force MPs to debate and vote on it in the new year.Dr Fox is concerned the move will send the wrong message to young women and encourage them to risk their health. He said: "We have called for this to be annulled because of the strength of our concerns over taking the prescription of the morning-after pill away from general practice, where all the necessary issues can be discussed confidentially, and into the chemist's shop where the pharmacist will be more constrained."The morning-after pill is available only with a doctor's prescription, but it was cleared for over-the-counter sale in chemist shops to over-16s by the Medicines Control Agency this year.Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, cleared the legal barriers by laying an order in Parliament last Monday. The Tory attempt to annul that will not prevent it going on sale from New Year's Day.

But if Mr Milburn is defeated in the Commons it could once again require a prescription.A spokesman for Mr Milburn said ministers had been advised the move was safe and said the Tories were denying women a vital choice."This should be a decision for individual women who find themselves in this position rather than one taken by ministers," he said.However, pro-life campaigners at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said the Government should not allow the pill to go on sale until the issue is debated by MPs."We are greatly encouraged by the strong stand taken by the Opposition," said the society's national director, John Smeaton.The move posed "particular danger to young girls", he said.. Violent arrests of Chinese protesters during President Jiang Zemin's state visit to London last year will not be repeated, the Foreign Office minister Peter Hain promised MPs yesterday. Violent arrests of Chinese protesters during President Jiang Zemin's state visit to London last year will not be repeated, the Foreign Office minister Peter Hain promised MPs yesterday. He apologised for the arrests which came after dissidents were pointed out to police by Chinese undercover agents, despite Mr Hain's personal assurance to a leading dissident that he would be allowed to demonstrate peacefully.He had made the promise to Wei Jingsheng, who had spent 18 years in prison, at a meeting just before the visit and phoned the Home Office to notify officials of it, he said."Subsequent events proved me wrong and I regret that. The lessons we learned from that will make sure in any future visit the right to peaceful protest is upheld."He denied the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, had refused to meet Wei Jingsheng and said he had been asked to attend the meeting in his stead because Mr Cook was busy.Mr Hain also faced criticism over the Government's relations with Burma during a Foreign Affairs Committee session on human rights. He said Britain had a policy of "isolation" relating to the country's military regime but later admitted his colleague John Battle, the trade minister, had talks with Burmese officials.He told a Conservative member, Sir Peter Emery, that Mr Battle had met the Burmese during a summit between European Union representatives and their counterparts in Asean, Asia's economic partnership."What happened there was not a negotiation. It was an exchange of views, which in John Battle's case were expressed very forthrightly. We are still pursuing a policy of isolation, but that doesn't mean we miss an opportunity to put a strong message across," he said..

Tony Blair gave his backing yesterday to controversial research on human embryos which could unlock a cure for chronic diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Tony Blair gave his backing yesterday to controversial research on human embryos which could unlock a cure for chronic diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Despite opposition to the move by pro-life MPs, the Prime Minister voted in favour of the move after a Commons debate last night. A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Blair believed it was important to discover what science could achieve before setting limits on what it was allowed to do."He is a strong believer in science and will be voting for it. He believes we should not put limits on science," the spokes- man said. The Public Health Minister, Yvette Cooper, denied plans for stem cell research would be a "slippery slope" to human cloning.The research could hold the key to healing within the human body, she said, and could give hope to those suffering from degenerative diseases as well as cancer and heart disease "Parliament is not being asked to cross the Rubicon today Human reproductive cloning is illegal and must stay illegal. Under these regulations it will stay illegal."Ms Cooper said the idea of cloning babies was "completely unacceptable," but he believed the new regulations were a "sensible extension" of the existing law. Research would be limited to embryos up to 14 days old, she added.Some people were opposed to all forms of embryo research regardless of the controls placed on them, but there were strong reasons to back the regulations.