MPs to revisit assisted suicide legislation in Parliament

Labour MP for Rochester and Stood, Lauren Edwards, has said that she plans to bring an assisted suicide bill back to Parliament as a Private Member’s Bill. The legislation proposed will be identical to the one which ran out of time in the House of Lords earlier this year.

Edwards was drawn second in the Private Member’s Bill ballot for the new session of Parliament back in May. On Sunday she announced that she would use that opportunity to bring back the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP in the previous parliamentary session.

By choosing to bring back the identical legislation, Edwards has opened the possibility of using the Parliaments Act to force through the Bill without the consent of the House of Lords. While laws are usually passed by both Houses agreeing the wording of the final Bill, if an identical Bill is passed by the Commons in two consecutive sessions, the Parliaments Act can pass the Bill without the approval of the Lords.

This raises the possibility that the legislation, which was recognised as being fundamentally flawed during scrutiny by Peers in the last session, could become law unamended, raising even greater concerns about its safety.

In a statement announcing her decision, Edwards said: “I believe it is a fundamental democratic principle that the elected chamber, the House of Commons, should decide what does and does not become law in this country” claiming that the Bill “was rightly described as the safest and most robust assisted dying law anywhere in the world. And it still is.”

Edwards herself said that “it is not my intention that the Parliament Acts should apply to this Bill” but added “we cannot allow an unelected minority to frustrate the democratic process for a second time.” She told the BBC that by introducing the legislation in this way she was “playing by the rules”.

Labour MP Ashley Dalton commented that she was “deeply concerned” about the reintroduction of the Bill. “Voters put us in power to reduce the cost of living and fix the NHS” said said. “We have debated this deeply divisive and flawed assisted dying bill for over a year and supporters have refused to listen or to make the necessary changes.” If passed, she said that the legislation would “hand sweeping unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments”.