Both Michael Howard and Tony Blair yesterday drew back from turning their difference of opinion on reducing the maximum time limit for abortion into a full scale political row.

Following the leader of the Catholic church Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor calling for the debate to be an "election issue", the two party leaders insisted it was a personal matter for MPs.

Pollsters have warned there are few votes available in British politics on the back of moral issues, while Howard reminded reporters that he had made his remarks to Cosmopolitan magazine, not the Catholic Herald.