Assisted dying bill’s fate will be decided after May King’s Speech | Politics | News
The bill’s supporters gathered outside Parliament last week. (Image: PA)
More than 50 peers have written to MPs urging them not to force the assisted dying Bill through Parliament after May’s King’s Speech. Both supporters and opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill — which is backed by the Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade — have accepted it will run out of time in the current session. Backers hope it will be reintroduced in the next session, when it could be passed into law without the House of Lords’ consent if the Commons votes for it a second time.
The letter to MPs, signed by 52 peers, warns that the bill “does not sufficiently guard against coercion or protect the most vulnerable people in our society”. It argues that a private member’s bill was the “wrong vehicle for a change of this scale and sensitivity”.
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The letter adds: “It should concern the House of Commons that campaigners now appear determined to force this Bill on to the statute book unamended.
“We are deeply concerned that MPs will be asked to approve a Bill whose sponsor in the House of Lords is still rewriting major parts of it.”
Signatories include Conservative former attorney general Baroness Victoria Prentis of Banbury, Labour peers Baroness Sue Gray of Tottenham and Lord Paul Boateng, and former Northern Ireland first minister Baroness Arlene Foster of Aghadrumsee.
The letter from peers comes after more than 150 MPs — including over 100 from Labour — wrote to Sir Keir Starmer, urging him to find time for Parliament to come to a final decision in the next session.
They said a small number of peers had used “procedural tactics”, such as tabling hundreds of amendments and making lengthy speeches, to block progress.
Asked whether he would allocate more time for the bill to be debated in the next session, the Prime Minister said on Friday: “The Government has been neutral on this bill because there are very strong views on either side, and I respect the fact that there are very strong views.
“So we’ve been neutral on this and not got involved in the arguments one way or the other, and that’s where we will remain.”
The bill’s sponsors Kim Leadbeater and Lord Falconer hope it will pass eventually (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, said the peers’ letter had been signed by just 5% of the Lords and “attempts to rewrite reality”.
She added: “The letter attempts to cast doubt on a Bill that has already cleared the elected House of Commons and undergone more than 200 hours of detailed scrutiny across Parliament.
“This is legislation drafted by expert counsel — the same gold-standard experts who write government bills — and explicitly confirmed by ministers as safe and workable.
“To claim that concerns have not been addressed is not just wrong, it is wilfully misleading. And the irony is stark: those complaining about the Bill not being improved are the very same peers whose behaviour has prevented meaningful scrutiny from concluding or proceeding to Report Stage, where disagreements on safeguards could be meaningfully resolved.”
Ms Wootton said it was “fundamentally undemocratic” for a small group of peers to obstruct Parliament from reaching a decision.
She added: “Above all, this deliberate delay has a real human cost: one that is measured in the continued suffering of dying people and bereaved families who are being denied the choice, compassion and protection they want and need, and which MPs and the public agree they must have.”
