The House of Lords last night approved amendments to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill that would abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel in England and Wales.

The last successful prosecution under the law happened in 1977, when Gay News editor Denis Lemon was fined £500 and given a two-month suspended sentence for the publication of a poem describing a Roman soldier having sex with Jesus Christ.

Stephen Green of Christian Voice failed in his attempt to bring a private blasphemy prosecution against the BBC last year, after it screened Jerry Springer the Opera, which Green claimed offended Jesus.