A fresh attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales has been launched, with the Labour MP behind it threatening to use a rarely triggered parliamentary power to override the House of Lords if peers try to block it again.
Lauren Edwards, the MP for Rochester and Strood, told the BBC she would bring an identical bill to the one passed by the Commons last year but which ran out of time in the Lords after an unprecedented number of suggested amendments delayed its progress.
“Labour MP Lauren Edwards reintroduces assisted dying bill, threatening to use Parliament Act to override Lords if blocked again.”
“It’s perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job,” Edwards said. “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.”
The proposed legislation, known as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, would allow people over 18 who are expected to die within six months to receive help to end their own life, subject to safeguards. The previous bill, brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, was not passed by the House of Lords in April.
By reintroducing the exact same text, Edwards is threatening to invoke the Parliament Act, a power used only seven times in the last century. Under it, if MPs pass an identical bill in two consecutive parliamentary sessions, peers cannot block it a second time. The Lords can suggest amendments, but if they do not pass the bill as a whole before the end of the next session – usually around a year – the unamended bill could become law without their approval.
Opponents have warned that using the Parliament Act risked creating a law out of a bill about which the Royal College of Psychiatrists, as well as a range of disability charities and hospices, have major concerns. They argued the previous bill had substantial flaws that risked vulnerable people being pressured into ending their lives early.
Lord Carlile of Berriew said the bill in its current form was not “robust” but that he and other peers were willing to work with Edwards “in a constructive spirit”. Edwards said she was “playing by the rules” and open to seeing changes, noting that many peers had proposed “sensible amendments”.
“I would ask them to do the really important job that they are there to do and that they do admirably and that is to refine the legislation the House of Commons has introduced,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Labour MP Ashley Dalton said she was “deeply …” (the quote was cut off in the source).
The fate of the bill now hinges on whether peers pass it this time – or risk being bypassed altogether.