Bonfire celebrations that involve burning an effigy of a pope face censorship under controversial laws planned by the Government.

Lewes attracted a record 65,000 people on Saturday to watch the town's five main societies commemorate the burning of the Protestant martyrs in Lewes from 1555 to 1557, during the reign of Mary Tudor, a Roman Catholic.

Bonfire societies walk through the streets carrying placards with the words: "No Popery."

The event has since been widened to include the Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot. The celebrations have been criticised in the past for continuing 400-year-old sectarian traditions such as burning effigies of Pope Paul V, who was pontiff in 1605.

The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill would create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred and could affect the festivities.

Keith Austin, secretary of Lewes Bonfire Council, which oversees the running of the event, said the annual celebrations might become a test case.

He said: "It is something that has to be investigated but we won't know if we will be affected until the law actually passes.

"The law will be there to stop hatred but there is absolutely no hatred of religion at Lewes; 99 per cent of the Bonfire Boys have no ties with the Church whatsoever.

"It is nothing really to do with religion now."

Mr Austin said the modern festivities were anything but sectarian and the burning of certain effigies was merely a tradition that had run for decades. This year, an effigy of a pope holding a staff and sitting on a throne was wheeled to Cliffe Bonfire Society's ticket-only site where hundreds gathered to watch him being blown up with fireworks.

Ric Newth, chairman of the society, said the society burns effigies only of Pope Paul V.

He said: "We are remembering a historical event.

"There are already too many individuals who are prepared to rewrite history for the sake of political correctness."