Private Members' Ballot could lead to another assisted suicide Bill

The House of Commons held the Private Members’ Ballot for this session of Parliament on Thursday. Half of the MPs drawn supported Kim Leadbeater’s Bill in the last Parliament, including those drawn second and fourth.

Private Members’ Bills are introduced by backbench MPs, who can choose the topic of their Bill if chosen in the ballot. Twenty names are drawn at random at the start of a Parliamentary session to choose who will be able to put forward a Bill. Those who are drawn highest in the ballot order have the highest chance of making progress with their Bill.

Before the ballot, supporters of assisted suicide, including Kim Leadbeater MP, said that they would persuade those drawn to bring back the Bill that ran out of time in the Lords in the last Parliamentary session. Leadbeater wrote to fellow MPs saying that “it is extremely important for trust in our democracy that Parliament is able to reach a conclusion on this issue. I hope colleagues who share that view will consider putting their names into the ballot and help complete the task we began on September 2024.”

Half of those drawn in Thursday’s ballot had previously voted for Leadbeater’s Bill at its Third Reading in the House of Commons. Most crucially, two of the top four drawn (who therefore have a greater chance of making progress) are supporters of the Bill.

Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP for St. Ives, came fourth in the ballot. He has said that he is “supportive of legislation which would permit terminally ill people (who are competent to do so) to have the power to themselves decide when and how they die”. He has also expressed frustration at the process in the House of Lords, and wishes to see the chamber reformed or removed. While he says he will not make a quick decision, the assisted suicide Bill is “definitely, definitely” on his list to consider bringing forward.

Second on the ballot was Lauren Edwards, Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, who became an MP for the first time in 2024. She also voted in favour of Leadbeater’s Bill in the Commons, saying afterwards: “I believe this Bill is one of the most important, compassionate, and empowering changes to healthcare we've seen in a generation.”

Top of the Private Members’ Bill ballot was Sir Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West. He voted against the assisted suicide Bill and said about it: “The bill is about changing the nature of medicine so that it can deliberately kill as well as cure.” However, Sir Desmond has also been a vocal critic of the Private Members’ Ballot, saying “we already have too many laws and that we should be taking time to repeal some of them rather than making even more”. He follows instructions from the Chief Whip each year to put his name in the ballot and “hope like hell that, once again, I will be unsuccessful.” Responding to requests about his thoughts on winning the ballot, he simply replied with one word: “Regrets”.

This comes at the same time as Labour MP and former public health minister, Ashley Dalton, who faces a terminal cancer diagnosis, has urged Parliament not to bring back the assisted suicide Bill. Dalton has not previous spoken out on the subject as she was serving as a government minster. But she stepped back from that role to concentrate on her cancer treatment while serving as MP for West Lancashire.

“I think it’d be really foolish to be honest,” she said, “to bring back something as a private member’s bill that has been so difficult, so divisive and so complicated”. She added: “It is our responsibility of members of the Houses of Parliament to make good law. And that means detail, it means specifics. It means making sure that what we do doesn’t have unintended consequences that affect some of the most vulnerable people.”