𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter Rebecca Wilcox said the assisted dying bill had been “thwarted by such a petty few”, after it ran out of time on Friday. Speaking at a press conference after the final Lords debate, she said she had just spoken to her mother, who was “hopeful that the brilliant minds who are behind the bill will get it through again”. Dame Esther is living with stage four lung cancer. Rebecca, 46, said the question of whether she would live long enough to see the law change was “an unknowable thing”.

Rebecca added: “She defies expectations in every respect. She’s three years post her diagnosis — and it was a diagnosis of ‘terminal’ from the first day. So she’s bloody impressive.” Confirming that her mother is still planning to travel to the Swiss assisted dying clinic Dignitas, Rebecca said: “I am still not allowed to go with her. And if I do, I will be investigated, I will lose my job, I will not be able to do my counselling work at Childline.”

It comes after Dame Esther shared a personal message for Express readers, urging them to write to her with personal stories of end-of-life suffering. The Express will collect your evidence and present it to MPs to remind them of the strength of feeling across the country.

Backing her mum’s plea, Rebecca said: “Hearing people’s stories has been so powerful, so energising, and has kept us going through all these speed bumps that we’re encountering, just like the one today.

“It’s really important for MPs to know that people are behind it, and these stories are the reasons why. These are the people that we are fighting for, their memories that we’re fighting for.

“So often memories of their loved ones have been destroyed because of the trauma that their death provoked. The law now is messy and cruel, and this is the very real collateral damage. It’s a very real human cost, and it’s devastating.”

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will not become law in this parliamentary session after opponents in the House of Lords tabled more than 1,200 amendments and filibustered.

Attention is now turning to the next session, when supporters hope an MP drawn in the private member’s bill ballot will bring it back.

At the press conference, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater — who introduced the legislation in late 2024 — said it was “difficult to see what has happened as anything other than undemocratic”.

The Spen Valley MP said she believed there was an appetite among MPs to look at the issue once more. She added: “There is a lot going on in the world, but this is such a human issue.

“There is a clear, public appetite for a change in the law and, as legislators, we have a duty to fix the status quo.”

Opponents have claimed the bill ran out of time because it was flawed and hundreds of amendments needed to be considered.

But Lord Charlie Falconer, the bill’s sponsor in the Lords, said: “The problem in the end was not a lack of time. The problem was pure obstruction by a small number.

“If there were problems with the bill — and we disagree about that — then vote to change the bill. But they stopped us from ever getting to that point.”

Tory MP and former education secretary Kit Malthouse told the Express: “Today is a really disgraceful episode. The position of the House of Lords in our constitution is essentially based on trust, and that trust has been roundly abused.

“So although the bill will fall today, it’s our determined view that it has to come back, and the Lords have to do the job that they’re entrusted to do. If they’re not willing to do that, then obviously the Parliament Act will have to kick in.”

If the Commons votes for the bill a second time, it could become law without the Lords’ consent under the Act.

Mr Malthouse added: “This issue is never going away until it’s resolved because the pain, the agony, the degradation, isn’t going away. It will come back in the next session, and the session after that, and the session after that, until it gets done.

“The British people want it done, a majority in the House of Commons wants it done, so the Lords have to play their part and help us reach a decision.”

Campaigner Sophie Blake, 53, who is living with incurable breast cancer, said terminally ill people were “devastated and angry”. She added: “The hope and relief we felt last summer when Parliament voted for this bill has been taken from us.

“A small group of unelected peers have denied the House of Lords the chance to vote. Yet it is not their lives that will be shaped by this decision, it is ours.”