Determined assisted dying campaigners vow ‘we will win this battle’ | Politics | News
Campaigners in Westminster on Friday morning (Image: PA)
Assisted dying campaigners have vowed to bring back the legislation in the next parliamentary session if a minority of peers succeed in blocking it. Supporters have insisted the fight was far from over despite “shameless” opponents running down the clock. Lord Charlie Falconer, the bill’s sponsor in the House of Lords, said: “It’s just a question of keeping going. Eventually we will win this battle.”
Terminally ill people and campaigners whose loved ones suffered bad deaths or went on lonely journeys to Dignitas gathered outside Parliament ahead of the 12th day of the Lords’ committee stage. They told of their frustration and disappointment that procedural tactics are expected to prevent peers holding a final vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which is backed by the Express Give Us Our Last Rights campaign.
Read more: Campaigners vow ‘valiant battle’ for assisted dying in Scotland will continue
Gilly McKeane, 72, has terminal kidney cancer that has spread around her body. She told the Express: “It’s just been so upsetting to see all this time-wasting.
“My time is running out, I don’t know how long I’ve got or what’s around the corner. It’s a very scary place to be.
“If I knew that I had that safety net where I could say, ‘that’s enough’, it would be such a relief. And I’m not going to have it, because it’s all running out of time.”
Even if the law were passed now, the four-year implementation period may mean it comes too late for her, Gilly said.
She added: “But I know it will happen and if I can do anything to help that, I’m going to stand here and wave my banner.”
The mother-of-one, who had travelled from Cheshire, added: “I’m terminally ill. Having said that, I embrace life, I love life, I’m living it to the full, and the notion that I’m suicidal is just not true.
“I’m fed up of hearing people, especially in the Lords at the moment, talking about [terminally ill people] being suicidal. I want to have the choice when the time comes that I feel ready to say I’ve had enough.
“I’ve been through operations, I’ve had a craniotomy, I’ve had a bowel operation, I’ve had a kidney removed, I’ve taken all the aggressive cancer drugs, and so I do want to live.
“I’ll carry on fighting to live but I still want that choice when it comes to it, where I can say: ‘That’s it. I’ve had enough. Please put me out of my misery.’”
Kim Leadbeater MP and Tony Marra talk about assisted dying
The campaigners were joined by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill in late 2024. She said she was “extremely frustrated and quite angry about the behaviour we’ve seen in the House of Lords”.
The Spen Valley MP added: “This piece of legislation is about the families that have been affected by a failing status quo, and that is what’s got me through this campaign.
“But sadly, some people in the House of Lords have made it about them, and it isn’t about them. It’s about terminally ill people and their families.”
Despite the setback suffered in recent weeks, Ms Leadbeater declared: “The law will change. It’s just a matter of time.
“I’m hoping that the House of Lords do the job that they’ve been given. We’ve got a few more Fridays left and they can still get it through.
“But if they don’t do that, and if the bill falls because of the actions of unelected people who nobody voted for, there’s a huge amount of anger in the House of Commons, where MPs took this debate and this conversation really seriously, engaging with their constituents.
“They will bring this bill back. Someone will bring the bill back, and then we’ll go again, because it matters so much to these people and the trauma that they have faced through losing loved ones with a failing status quo.”
If the Commons votes for the same bill in a second session, it could be passed into law without the Lords’ consent under the Parliament Act.
There are two likely routes through which the landmark legislation could return. Dozens of supportive MPs are expected to enter the private member’s bill ballot and could adopt it if drawn in a high position.
Ms Leadbeater could also bring it back as a presentation bill, however this option would likely only succeed if the Government intervened to ensure it was given parliamentary time.
Kim Leadbeater MP joined campaigners outside Parliament as the debate continued (Image: Getty)
Reports have suggested the Prime Minister is minded not to intervene. However, sources close to conversations with No.10 have dismissed this.
Asked if he believed Sir Keir Starmer should step in if necessary, Lord Falconer of Thornton said: “If it doesn’t come high in the private members bill ballot, then the Government should make time for that.
“It doesn’t make it a government bill, doesn’t stop it being a free vote, doesn’t stop it being a matter of conscience, still.”
He added: “[Sir Keir] doesn’t need to make it a government bill. All he needs to do is say that a little bit of government time should be made available, maybe one day, in which the Commons can decide, do they want to insist that their bill goes through?
“It doesn’t mean the Lords won’t get a chance to try to change it, but if they block it again, then it will go through.”
Asked whether he thought the Commons would hold its nerve and back the bill a second time, Lord Falconer said: “I definitely do.”
Earlier this week, Scottish families also vowed to keep fighting after MSPs voted 69 to 57 against a similar bill.
The legislation, which received majority support in earlier votes, would have made Scotland the first nation in the UK to give terminally ill people the right to die.
Dame Esther Rantzen said she was “very sad” for the families, politicians and campaigners affected by the decision.
She added: “I am sure this valiant battle will continue until Scotland votes through the reform that so many countries around the world have already adopted.”
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, admitted the defeat was “a huge disappointment”.
But she added that it was important that Holyrood “reached a democratic decision, in contrast to Westminster where this is being talked out by a minority of peers”.
Ms Wootton said: “Just 1% of peers have tabled 70% of the amendments. We’re not even in the voting stage, the report stage. [Opponents] are determined not to get to any votes because they know they would lose.
“I think that’s a democratic abomination, it’s outrageous. It’s bigger than assisted dying — it’s an affront to democracy.”
‘My sister fought for compassion’
Tony Marra, 57, flew from Canada to join the protest in memory of his sister Paola, who traveled to Dignitas in 2024.
Latest figures released on Friday showed the number of UK residents dying at the clinic has risen to its second-highest level in two decades.
Some 43 people were recorded as having travelled to Switzerland for an assisted death in 2025, up from 37 the previous year.
Paola, 53, had been diagnosed with terminal bowel and breast cancer and feared an agonising death.
She recorded a video message urging politicians to change the “cruel law” before travelling alone to avoid implicating anyone else in her death.
Tony said: “My sister died two years ago today in Switzerland, at Dignitas. She was a champion for change in the assisted dying status quo.
“She fought for compassionate assisted dying — something that she didn’t have. She had terminal bowel cancer and really would have had a painful death, so she took control and booked a date at Dignitas and in the final few months really celebrated her life.
“Assisted dying gives peace of mind that you won’t suffer needlessly.”
Shortly before she died, Paola described her illness as “brutal and non-stop”. She added: “I’m not scared to die. I’m scared of dying in pain.”
A total of 651 UK residents have died at Dignitas according to its data, accounting for almost 16% of deaths by country of residency between 1998 and 2025.
The latest UK figure — part of records dating back to 2002 — is second only to the number in 2016, when 47 UK residents died there.
Tony said the actions of a small group of peers who have tabled hundreds of amendments and spoken at length to filibuster as “shameful”.
He added: “It really comes down to control. [When you have] a disease that ravages you, you have no control over treatment often and to choose an assisted death is to have control over this disease.”
