Supporters of the assisted dying bill are planning to enlist some 200 MPs to attempt to bring it back into contention this summer.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is currently set to fail when parliament ends its current session ahead of the King’s Speech on 13 May.
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It needs to complete its parliamentary stages before then but has become stuck in the House of Lords.
The bill would give people over 18 who are terminally ill and in the final six months of their life the ability to request assistance from a doctor to die.
It only covers England and Wales. MSPs rejected a Scottish version on 17 March, while Jersey and the Isle of Man recently passed their own laws.
The bill was proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who in September 2024 came first in a ballot of backbench MPs to bring forward their own draft laws. This ballot happens in each parliamentary session.
So how could it return?
Backers of the bill have told Sky News they think around 200 MPs would be willing to reintroduce the bill should they come in the top few places in the next ballot, due on 21 May.
“The strategy is to come high up in the private members bill ballot,” Charlie Falconer, the Labour peer who has been shepherding the bill through the Lords, told Sky News.
Government ministers aren’t allowed to put in for the ballot – between 400 and 500 backbench MPs usually enter. If 500 do, a supporter has a 92% chance of coming in the top five places needed to have a realistic chance of progressing.
“The idea is we all support that person to take Kim [Leadbeater]’s bill through again,” Labour MP Dr Simon Opher, a key backer of the bill, told Sky News.
Lord Falconer and Dr Simon Opher. Pics: House of Lords/Roger Harris and House of Commons/Roger Harris
Why would it be different next time?
As MPs have already passed the bill once, Dr Opher said it could clear all Commons stages again quickly.
“As it is a private members’ bill, the whole committee could be supporters of the legislation, so the committee stage would only last a few hours,” he explained.
“There’s very little appetite for a long, drawn-out debate,” Lord Falconer said. “There would be appetite for one day of decisive votes.”
Dr Opher said even some MPs who voted against it last time would now back the bill because it’s seen as “undemocratic” for the Lords to block it.
More than 100 Labour MPs wrote to Sir Keir Starmer a fortnight ago urging him to stop the Lords from blocking the bill and to give it time to return in the Commons. Similar letters from supportive MPs from other parties have been sent.
Lord Falconer said he would put the bill’s chances of becoming law at “significantly more than 50%” – while Dr Opher put it at 90%.
‘Deep flaws’ in bill
But Labour MP Adam Jogee, who opposes the bill, said the public didn’t want to see a “flawed” bill become law.
“Rightly, the overwhelming majority of people in our country want their MPs to pass safe, well-developed laws that are watertight and robust,” he said. “The House of Lords has exposed deep flaws in the assisted dying bill.”
He pointed to recent polling by JL Partners, where 77% of respondents said they agreed a bill that hasn’t been fully scrutinised should not become law.
And Labour’s Baroness Luciana Berger, who also is against the bill, said it was a “danger to the vulnerable”.
“None of the relevant medical Royal Colleges, professional groups, advocacy groups or even the government’s own Ministers will say that the legislation is safe,” she added.
Dr Opher, however, said it was the “safest assisted dying bill in the world”.
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How MPs could bypass the Lords
Assuming MPs once again vote in favour of the bill, it would become law at the end of the next parliamentary session even if the Lords failed to pass it again.
That’s because of a piece of procedure called the Parliament Act, which says the same bill, twice passed by MPs but rejected by peers in two adjacent sessions, becomes law anyway.
It’s only been used twice this century: to ban fox hunting and to equalise the age of consent for gay sex.
Dr Opher said because peers had taken so long to debate the bill, they had lost the chance to make changes: “Their main role is to amend bills to make them better – because of their blocking tactics, they’ve got rid of that option.”
Opponents of the bill have previously told Sky News it would be “outrageous” to use the Parliament Act. Critical peers fiercely deny they are purposefully obstructing the bill and insist they are trying to improve what they think is a poorly designed piece of legislation.
The final option
If the ballot plan fails, supporters are planning to try to persuade the government to give the bill time as another type of backbench bill, called a presentation bill.
Usually, these don’t progress beyond their first stage – but supporters would seek to persuade the government they should give it time to protect the authority of the democratically elected Commons over the unelected Lords.
Ministers are understood to have rejected formally taking on the bill as government legislation, as they fear splitting the Labour Party over an issue its MPs disagree on.
