A fresh attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales was launched on Wednesday, with the MP behind the plan telling the BBC she wanted to “finish the job”.
Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, is bringing an identical bill to the one passed by the Commons last year but blocked in the House of Lords after more than 1,000 proposed amendments ran down the clock. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – originally introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater – would allow people over 18 who are expected to die within six months to receive help to end their own lives, subject to safeguards.
“Lauren Edwards reintroduces assisted dying bill, threatening to use Parliament Act if Lords block it again.”
By reintroducing the exact same legislation, Edwards is threatening to trigger rarely used powers under the Parliament Act, which has been invoked only seven times in the last century. If the Commons passes the bill in two consecutive sessions and the Lords refuses to pass it, the unamended bill could become law without peers’ approval. “I’m playing by the rules,” Edwards told the BBC, “and asking the House of Lords to do the same. 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.”
Opponents, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, disability charities and hospices, have warned the bill is flawed and risks pressuring vulnerable people into ending their lives early. But Edwards dismissed internal party concerns about Labour divisions, telling the Guardian: “I’m a proud Labour MP … I will die Labour, but I can’t be in a position of saying: ‘I’m not going to do this because it might be a little bit tricky for the parliamentary Labour party.’” She criticised the way the bill was halted in the Lords as “anti-democratic”.
The Guardian can also reveal that Labour MP and disability rights campaigner Marie Tidball will co-sponsor the bill, alongside former minister Alex Davies-Jones. Edwards, who came second in the private member’s bill ballot, will present the bill for a first reading on Wednesday, with a second-reading debate scheduled for early September. She said she would seek to reassure MPs that she does not intend to use the Parliament Act unless the Lords attempts to block the bill using filibuster tactics. “I want to reintroduce it primarily so that we can allow that legislative process to continue and send it back as soon as we can to the House of Lords, so that people can continue to have faith in our democratic system,” she said.
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”. The Lords now face a second chance to scrutinise the legislation – but if they stall again, Edwards has made clear she is prepared to use every tool available to force it through.