Sir Keir Starmer has a porn problem, and it could be as serious as the “Pincher moment” which did for Boris Johnson, Labour MPs are warning.

In a series of late-night sittings recently, the House of Lords has been debating the regulation of adult content. Peers had already voted to ban semen-defaced images, screen-shotting intimate videos, and to bar the creation or possession of porn depicting incest.

On Monday they went further and defeated the Government by just one vote on an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which makes portrayals of sex between stepfamilies illegal too.

In 2024, 4.1 billion videos viewed on Pornhub featured incest-related scenarios. Campaigners are concerned that it normalises the concept and makes it more likely in real life. The Lords were told that in the UK, step parents perpetrate around half of all sexual abuse cases against children.

This week the Government found itself in the invidious position of whipping its Labour peers against the ban, on the basis it risked criminalising sexual relationships that are lawful between adults in real life. They also claimed the change would make it too complicated for prosecutors. Some Labour peers abstained.

Among a series of amendments, peers also voted to make it a duty on platforms that host porn to check the age of their actors.

If the bill goes back to the House of Commons for parliamentary ping-pong by the end of the month, Labour’s women MPs have told The i Paper they will back the Lords’ amendments and defy any attempts by Starmer to force them to vote the........

© iNews