The fight to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is back before Parliament, with Labour MP Lauren Edwards vowing to “finish the job” – and threatening to use rarely triggered powers to bypass the House of Lords if peers try to block it again.
Edwards, the MP for Rochester and Strood, confirmed she will introduce an identical version of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was passed by the Commons in June 2025 but ran out of time in the Lords after peers submitted more than 1,000 amendments. The proposed law would allow people over 18 who are expected to die within six months to be given help to end their own life, subject to safeguards.
“Labour MP Lauren Edwards reintroduces assisted dying bill, threatening to use Parliament Act to override Lords if blocked again.”
By bringing the exact same legislation, Edwards is opening the door to using the Parliament Act, a mechanism used only seven times in the last century. Under those rules, if MPs pass an identical bill in two consecutive parliamentary sessions, the Lords cannot block it a second time. The peers can suggest amendments, but if the bill is not passed by the end of the next session – roughly a year – it could become law without their approval.
“Laws passed in the House of Commons are then refined by the House of Lords but they don’t have the opportunity to block them,” Edwards told the BBC. “It’s perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job.”
Edwards, who came second in the ballot for private members’ bills, described her decision as a matter of democracy. The bill “was prevented from passing only by the decision of a minority in the House of Lords to talk it out and stop it coming to a vote,” she said. “We owe it to all those terminally ill people and their families who are depending on this bill to ensure that parliament can come to a final decision on the question of choice at the end of life.”
The move has split Labour. Ashley Dalton, another Labour MP, said she was “deeply concerned”, arguing the bill would “hand sweeping unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments”. Opponents have also warned that using the Parliament Act would risk creating a law that the Royal College of Psychiatrists, disability charities and hospices have major concerns about.
But Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, welcomed the announcement as “an enormous relief to terminally ill people and their families”. She said: “Every day, dying people are forced to endure suffering they would not choose, while others take desperate measures because the law offers them no safe, compassionate alternative.”