Britain's Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, last night moved to quash a growing row over media coverage of his "outing" as a homosexual by saying he had no intention of complaining about his treatment by the press.
A spokesman for the minister said neither would the minister be making any further comment on his private life.
The Press Complaints Commission had previously said it would ask Mr Brown if he wishes to make a formal complaint about his enforced "outing", as ministers and supporters lined up yesterday to condemn the treatment of the issue by the press.
Downing Street dismissed reports that his treatment might lead to a new privacy law. Repeating the government's view that the press should regulate itself, the Prime Minister's spokesman said that in general the press did reflect a "greater public understanding" of the difference between private lives and public office.
The chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Wakeham, confirmed that he would be contacting Mr Brown about the press report in the News of the World. In a statement yesterday Lord Wakeham, who was asked to look into the issue by the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr Clive Soley, said if the minister did make a complaint he would deal "vigorously" with any investigation.
However, if Mr Brown did not wish to co-operate, Lord Wakeham continued, "then the PCC cannot conduct a fair and evenhanded investigation under the Code". The minister, who was visiting farmers in Devon in his first public engagement since the weekend revelations, said he was moved and touched by the support he had received. People had been kind and supportive since he made his statement, and the best way that he could repay their kindness was to continue to be an effective cabinet minister and Agriculture Minister.
"I want to get on with being farm minister. . . I do not want to say anything more about my private life or get embroiled in long arguments about it," he added.
Earlier the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, accused certain sections of the press of acting as "judge, jury and executioner" in their approach to Mr Brown's sexuality. The intrusion into the minister's private life was quite deplorable, he told BBC radio, and he believed that the British public supported his view.
He was joined by the former Conservative chancellor, Lord Lamont, who wrote to the PCC saying that it seemed very doubtful that there was any public interest in the reports.
The Liberal Democrats made a fierce attack on the Sun newspaper's front-page headline, which asked: "Are we being run by a gay Mafia?"
Defending its stance, the Sun's political editor, Mr Trevor Kavanagh, told the BBC that it was justified in asking the question because ministers were asked to make decisions about the gay age of consent and gays in the armed forces, and the public should be informed of their sexuality.
Britons may be allowed to celebrate the coming of the new millennium with an unprecedented all-night session in the pub, the government said yesterday. The Home Office said it proposed to relax the tight rules on licensing hours which until now have meant landlords calling "time" shortly after the singing of Auld Lang Syne at midnight on New Year's Eve.
One possibility was to allow carousing to continue until four o'clock in the morning; the other to allow pubs to stay open until 11 am - opening time on January 1st. "The government's preferred option is an all-night relaxation of licensing hours on New Year's Eve," the ministry said in a statement, adding any change will not take effect until the end of 1999.