A leading schools organisation has reacted cautiously to a massive cash offer from businessman Brian Souter to oppose a repeal of the law banning the promotion of homosexuality.

Stagecoach chairman Brian Souter has faced a storm of criticism from gay rights and civil liberties groups over a reported £500,000-plus offer to the Scottish School Boards Association.

The association said it would oppose the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1986 and Mr Souter, a Christian and father of four, offered cash to fund a concerted campaign.

The money would come from the Souter Foundation, a charitable organisation of which Mr Souter is a trustee.

SSBA chief executive Ann Hill said she had been approached by public relations company Media House, which has been acting on behalf of Mr Souter.

She pointed out that while the organisation would accept a donation of several thousand pounds from Mr Souter, she was concerned any deal would be hijacked by the media company.

She said: "I think there's a danger here of the SSBA being used to front this campaign, when I don't think we'd be comfortable doing that.

"And I think it's a case of if we decide to front a campaign, it'll be all our ideas and our decisions, and not decisions made on our behalf by a media company."

The SSBA is due to present its submission opposing the lifting of the ban to the Scottish Executive next Wednesday.

David Macauley, a spokesman for Mr Souter and a Media House employee, denied there was any attempt to hijack the campaign and accused the Scottish Executive of pushing through the legislation without proper consultation.

Taxpayers money

He said: "The executive are using taxpayers' money to railroad this legislation through parliament with the full might of government and their legions of spin doctors.

"Mr Souter's actions could be viewed as an ultra-democratic move by providing resources to enable the man in the street to understand what this repeal would mean and to make their feelings known to government."

Mr Macauley said reports that the millionaire would offer up to £1m to fund the campaign were "purely media speculation".

"The figure of £1m has never been mentioned by Mr Souter. For the purpose of this Mr Souter has made available the resources at his disposal - the personal resources, not Stagecoach's and no upper limit has been discussed".

Scottish gay rights campaigners have accused millionaire Mr Souter of being homophobic and anti-democratic in seeking to fund a campaign.

Tim Hopkins, of the Equality Network, said the Scottish Parliament's consultation process allowed Mr Souter to make his views known without him using his money to make his voice heard.

He said: "It will be five months before this bill becomes law.

"There's an opportunity for everybody to speak to the executive...to speak to their MSP about it, and I'm very concerned that one particular person with a particular view is trying to skew this by throwing a lot of money at it.

"In a general election candidates are not allowed to spend anything like this amount of money."