Iain Duncan Smith has faced a rebellion over his party's compromise option for reform of Section 28.

As the Commons completed its consideration of the local government bill, scores of Tories failed to back moves to reintroduce watered down version of Section 28.

Over 70 MPs failed to back the leadership as Duncan Smith led his party through the division lobbies in a bid to retain the clause.

Opposition was led by John Bercow - who resigned last year in protest at the leadership's stance.

Bercow described the clause, which prevents the promotion of homosexuality in schools, as "obnoxious".

"In the age of pervasive cynicism about Punch and Judy politics it is important not to oppose for the sake of opposing," he said.

Michael Fabricant said the "effect of section 28 is to stop teachers trying to prevent homophobic bullying".

"It means that many schools cannot explain effectively what homosexuality is all about. In this modern day and age, there needs to be openness in schools, as in society in general," he told MPs.

But Edward Leigh defended the law - denying it was a hate clause.

"Some say it prevents any discussion of homosexuality in the classroom, that it prevents teachers from tackling bullying, that it is a hate clause. None of these are true. It is about the use of local authority money for the active promotion of homosexuality," he said.

From the opposition frontbench Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told MPs that "things have gone wrong" in sex education over recent years.

He slammed a pamphlet produced by the Scottish Executive which taught children aged seven to 11 "about anal intercourse, masturbation, all about the clitoris, lesbianism, oral sex and bisexuality".

Labour's Chris Bryant said the law was fundamentally wrong and was resulting in misery amongst young homosexuals.

"The number of young men who have committed suicide when they have started to understand their own sexuality in this country is phenomenal. I believe that section 28 was brought in to make a declamation that homosexuality was abnormal, immoral and wrong," he said.