He also revealed he had sacked columnist Matthew Parris, who outed Peter Mandelson during a TV programme. It seems the policy change was ordered following the furore over The Sun's front page editorial which asked whether the country was being run by a `gay mafia'. The piece came a day after The Sun's sister paper, the News of the World, had revealed that Nick Brown, the agriculture minister, was gay. The Sun article, which was approved by Yelland, was condemned as homophobic, and appears to have caused a huge row at News International, which owns The Sun and News of the World. ``There were complaints about it from readers and seniorexecutives,'' said a source. ``It would not be unrealistic to assume Rupert Murdoch was involved. The feeling was that The Sun had gone too far.''

The pressure rose when Downing Street took a dim view of the follow up front page, which claimed: `Blair backs The Sun over gays'. Fearing a backlash, News International decided to issue a statement from Yelland. It read: `From now on The Sun will not out homosexuals unless there is major public interest reason to do so.'

Parris, though not involved in either of the front-page stories, was telephoned by Yelland and told his column ``was not working''. However, Parris said he believed the statement and his dismissal ``were not unrelated''. Parris suggested The Sun's new liberalism might crumble the next time the House of Commons considered lowering the age of consent for gays. ``Then MPs' private lives will be seen as a matter of public interest.'' Mandelson was apparently ``as surprised as anyone'' that Parris had been dropped byThe Sun.

-- The Observer News Service