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A Tory minister has talked until a law to automatically pardon 50,000 men criminalised under anti-gay laws ran out of time.

Sam Gyimah was still speaking today at 2.30pm when the 'whistle' went on a backbench MP's Bill inspired by wartime codebreaker Alan Turing.

Under archaic House of Commons rules that means it's been shelved without letting MPs vote.

The Justice Minister insisted the government was working on separate pardon laws with safeguards to stop people guilty of crimes that still exist today, like paedophiles and rapists, being cleared by accident.

He added: "Yes, we all want a pardon. Yes, we all want to right the wrongs of the past. But we cannot do that without having... safeguards. I believe to do that would be irresponsible on the part of the government."

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But SNP backbencher John Nicolson, who led today's Bill, said the government's version was not good enough - and MPs should be allowed to choose.

Some of the men were caught by police before homosexual acts were legalised in 1967. Others were convicted of underage sex because the gay age of consent was 21 until 1994.

The government's version will make men who are still alive, one of whom is 93, apply for their own pardon.

"They will not apply for this," Mr Nicolson told MPs. "They will not open themselves up to the shame and humiliation."

Tory former prisons minister Crispin Blunt added a full Bill would be more "symbolic" than the government's amendment and could easily have safeguards put in.

Labour's Christina Rees urged ministers to accept the Bill for "50,000 men affected by these vicious and discriminatory laws".

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Mr Nicolson told the Mirror after the debate: "I think the way the government behaved has been deeply dishonourable.

"This is the kind of thing I think that draws the House of Commons into disrepute."

He added: "I think all of our stomachs turned as we saw the minister in the most cynical way talk the Bill out".

Mr Nicolson claimed Tory whips had told him over the summer there would be "no tricks and no games from our side".

He added: "I will never ever believe anything a Tory whip ever says to me again."

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Mr Gyimah began his speech at 2.05pm and insisted he needed time to "develop my argument".

Mr Nicolson and his allies had tried to force the debate to a close before he started, but only 57 MPs voted for that motion - and they needed 100 for it to win.

Labour benches were relatively empty, with many MPs having to do constituency work on Fridays.

The incident comes just days after a committee hit out at the process for 'Private Members' Bills' (PMBs), of which Mr Nicholson's was one.

It called for speech time limits to end filibustering and bring the "ridiculous, puny and ineffectual” system out of the "19th Century".

Mr Gyimah's speech was much shorter than many that helped Bills run out of time last year, including one that lasted 93 minutes.

He told angry MPs they had spoken in support of the Bill for more than three hours.

The debate was prompted by the pardon of Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing, who killed himself after being chemically castrated.

During the session one Tory MP was applauded as he said sorry for voting against gay marriage, admitting: "I got it wrong".

Nigel Adams made the heartfelt apology as he backed the Bill, adding: "I thought at the time that what I was doing was right".

Labour MP Chris Bryant choked back emotion describing trailblazers who were the first to spot the Nazis' treatment of gay people before the Second World War.

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His voice cracked as he said: "We as a country owe not just to those people, but to so many other men, something that feels like an apology.

"That really says 'I'm sorry, we got this wrong, you were brave courageous men. We got it wrong. You were right. We owe you a debt of gratitude."

Justice Minister Mr Gyimah insisted the government's own amendment, announced 36 hours before the debate, would do what MPs wanted.

"The government wants to right this historic wrong and do it as fairly and quickly as possible," he added.