Watch live: MPs cast final vote for assisted dying bill
Watch live as MPs debate and vote on the controversial assisted dying bill for the terminally ill in the House of Commons on Friday (20 June).
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is back for its third reading today - the first time MPs will vote on the overall piece of legislation since a historic yes vote last year.
In November, MPs gave the proposal their initial backing, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 against.
If the new amendments are voted through, the Bill - which allows terminally ill adults to get medical assistance to end their own lives - will go through to the next stage in the House of Lords.
Since last year, more than a dozen MPs who backed or abstained on the Bill have said they were now likely to oppose it, with critics claiming that the Bill does not have enough protections and has been rushed through
In a last-minute letter to all MPs on Thursday (19 June), Labour MPs Markus Campbell-Savours, Kanishka Narayan, Paul Foster and Jonathan Hinder said: 'The Bill presented to MPs in November has been fundamentally changed. This is not the safest Bill in the world.
'It is weaker than the one first laid in front of MPs and has been drastically weakened.'
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Western Telegraph
4 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Campaigners for and against assisted dying make feelings known at Westminster
Dame Prue Leith, Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, and the broadcaster, Jonathan Dimbleby, were among the high-profile figures supporting the Bill to change the law in England and Wales. Members of the Dignity in Dying campaign wore pink and held placards in memory of friends and family members. Those opposed to the Bill included groups dressed as scientists in white lab coats and bloodied gloves and masks, as well as nuns and other members of religious organisations. The mood amongst campaigners was largely calm and respectful on both sides. Dame Prue told the PA news agency she was 'both nervous and confident' about the outcome. 'It's so moving to see all these people with placards of people they've lost or people who are dying of cancer,' she said. 'It's hard not to cry because I think they have done such a good job. Let's hope we've won.' Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, supporting the Dignity in Dying protest outside Parliament (Yui Mok/PA) Mr Dimbleby said he believed the Bill would be 'transformative'. He added: 'What it will mean is millions of people will be able to say to themselves, 'If I'm terminally ill, I will be able to choose, assuming I am of sound mind and I am not being coerced, to say 'Yes, I want to be assisted – I have dignity in death'.' Rebecca Wilcox, the daughter of Dame Esther, said: 'It couldn't be a kinder, more compassionate Bill that respects choice at the end of life, that respects kindness and empathy and gives us all an option when other options, every other option, has been taken away, and it would just be the perfect tool for a palliative care doctor to have in their med bag.' Teachers Catie and Becky Fenner said they wanted other families to benefit from the Bill. Campaigners against the assisted dying Bill outside Parliament (Yui Mok/PA) Their mother, who had motor neurone disease, had flown to Dignitas in Switzerland to end her life at a cost of £15,000. The sisters said they did not get to properly say goodbye and grieve and worried about the legal repercussions. Catie, 37, said: 'We were left quite traumatised by the whole experience – not only seeing a parent go through a really horrible disease but then the secrecy of the planning.' Campaigners against the Bill, who were gathered outside Parliament, chanted 'We are not dead yet' and 'Kill the Bill, not the ill'. A display was erected with a gravestone reading 'RIP: The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Bury it deep', and behind were two mounds meant to resemble graves. Andrew Hilliard, 75, said he was opposed for religious reasons. He was dressed in a white lab coat with a placard reading: 'Protect our NHS from becoming the National Suicide Service'. The chief executive of Care Not Killing, Dr Gordon Macdonald, said MPs should prioritise improving palliative care. He said: 'Most people, when thinking about the practical implications of this, for those most vulnerable, they change their minds.' George Fielding, a campaigner affiliated with the Not Dead Yet group which is opposed to assisted dying, said he attended to represent disabled people. He said: 'This Bill will endanger and shorten the lives of disabled people.'
South Wales Guardian
18 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Assisted dying Bill not now or never moment, says Cleverly ahead of crucial vote
The House of Commons is debating a Bill to change the law in England and Wales, ahead of a crunch afternoon vote. The outcome would lead to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill either clearing the House of Commons and moving to the Lords, or falling completely – with a warning the latter could mean the issue might not return to Westminster for a decade. The relatively narrow majority of 55 from the historic yes vote in November means every vote will count on Friday. Some MPs have already confirmed they will switch sides to oppose a Bill they describe as 'drastically weakened', after a High Court judge safeguard was scrapped and replaced with expert panels. As it stands, the proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and the three-member panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Bill sponsor Kim Leadbeater has insisted the multidisciplinary panels represent a strengthening of the legislation, incorporating wider expert knowledge to assess assisted dying applications. Opening her debate, Ms Leadbeater said her Bill is 'cogent' and 'workable', with 'one simple thread running through it – the need to correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it'. She pushed back on concerns raised about the Bill by some doctors and medical bodies, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), noting: 'We have different views in this House and different people in different professions have different views.' She noted that all the royal colleges have a neutral position on assisted dying. Some members of RCPsych also wrote recently to distance themselves from the college's criticism of the Bill and pledge their support for it. MPs have a free vote on the Bill, meaning they decide according to their conscience rather than along party lines – although voting is not mandatory and others present on Friday could formally abstain. Ms Leadbeater warned that choosing not to support the assisted dying Bill is 'not a neutral act', but rather 'a vote for the status quo'. Repeating her warning that the issue is unlikely to be broached again for a decade if her Bill fails, she told the Commons: 'It fills me with despair to think MPs could be here in another 10 years' time hearing the same stories.' But, leading opposition to the Bill, Conservative former minister Sir James said while this is 'an important moment', there will be 'plenty of opportunities' in future for the issue to be discussed. Sir James said: 'I disagree with her (Ms Leadbeater's) assessment that it is now or never, and it is this Bill or no Bill, and that to vote against this at third reading is a vote to maintain the status quo. 'None of those things are true. There will be plenty of opportunities.' The Bill would fall if 28 MPs switched directly from voting yes to no, but only if all other MPs voted the same way as in November, including those who abstained. Ms Leadbeater this week appeared to remain confident her Bill will pass, acknowledging that while she expected 'some small movement in the middle', she did not 'anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded'. All eyes will be on whether Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and senior colleagues continue their support for the Bill. Sir Keir indicated earlier this week that he had not changed his mind since voting yes last year, saying his 'position is long-standing and well-known'. Downing Street declined to 'speculate on the PM's movements today' when asked about his attendance at the Commons debate. Health Secretary Wes Streeting described Ms Leadbeater's work on the proposed legislation as 'extremely helpful', but confirmed in April that he still intended to vote against it. Ahead of the debate, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged her MPs to vote against the legislation, describing it as 'a bad Bill' despite being 'previously supportive of assisted suicide'. A vote must be called before 2.30pm, as per parliamentary procedure. Friday's session began with considerations of outstanding amendments to the Bill, including one to prevent a person meeting the requirements for an assisted death 'solely as a result of voluntarily stopping eating or drinking'. The amendment – accepted without the need for a vote – combined with existing safeguards in the Bill, would rule out people with eating disorders falling into its scope, Ms Leadbeater has said. Another amendment, requiring ministers to report within a year of the Bill passing on how assisted dying could affect palliative care, was also approved by MPs. Marie Curie welcomed the amendment, but warned that 'this will not on its own make the improvements needed to guarantee everyone is able to access the palliative care they need' and urged a palliative care strategy for England 'supported by a sustainable funding settlement – which puts palliative and end of life care at the heart of NHS priorities for the coming years'. Supporters and opponents of a change in the law gathered at Westminster early on Friday, holding placards saying 'Let us choose' and 'Don't make doctors killers'. Among the high-profile supporters were Dame Prue Leith, who said she is 'quietly confident' about the outcome of the vote, and Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox. Opposition campaigner and disability advocate George Fielding turned out to urge parliamentarians to vote no, saying: 'What MPs are deciding on is whether they want to give people assistance to die before they have assistance to live.' A YouGov poll of 2,003 adults in Great Britain, surveyed last month and published on Thursday, suggested public support for the Bill remains at 73% – unchanged from November. The proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle has risen slightly, to 75% from 73% in November.
South Wales Guardian
19 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
MPs share their own stories as assisted dying debate continues
Debating the proposal to roll out assisted dying in the UK, Sir James Cleverly described losing his 'closest friend earlier this year' and said his opposition did not come from 'a position of ignorance'. The Conservative former minister said he and 'the vast majority' of lawmakers were 'sympathetic with the underlying motivation of' the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, 'which is to ease suffering in others and to try and avoid suffering where possible'. But he warned MPs not to 'sub-contract' scrutiny of the draft new law to peers, if the Bill clears the Commons after Friday's third reading debate. Backing the proposal, Conservative MP Mark Garnier said 'the time has come where we need to end suffering where suffering can be put aside, and not try to do something which is going to be super perfect and allow too many more people to suffer in the future'. He told MPs that his mother died after a 'huge amount of pain', following a diagnosis in 2012 of pancreatic cancer. Sir James, who described himself as an atheist, said: 'I've had this said to me on a number of occasions, 'if you had seen someone suffering, you would agree with this Bill'. 'Well, Mr Speaker, I have seen someone suffering – my closest friend earlier this year died painfully of oesophageal cancer and I was with him in the final weeks of his life. 'So I come at this not from a position of faith nor from a position of ignorance.' Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden Dame Siobhain McDonagh intervened in Sir James's speech and said: 'On Tuesday, it is the second anniversary of my sister's death. 'Three weeks prior to her death, we took her to hospital because she had a blood infection, and in spite of agreeing to allow her into intensive care to sort out that blood infection, the consultant decided that she shouldn't go because she had a brain tumour and she was going to die. 'She was going to die, but not at that moment. 'I'm sure Mr Speaker can understand that a very big row ensued. I won that row. 'She was made well, she came home and she died peacefully. What does (Sir James) think would happen in identical circumstances, if this Bill existed?' Sir James replied: 'She asks me to speculate into a set of circumstances which are personal and painful, and I suspect she and I both know that the outcome could have been very, very different, and the moments that she had with her sister, just like the moments I had with my dear friend, those moments might have been lost.' He had earlier said MPs 'were promised the gold-standard, a judicially underpinned set of protections and safeguards', which were removed when a committee of MPs scrutinised the Bill. He added: 'I've also heard where people are saying, 'well, there are problems, there are still issues, there are still concerns I have', well, 'the Lords will have their work to do'. 'But I don't think it is right and none of us should think that it is right to sub-contract our job to the other place (the House of Lords).' Mr Garnier, who is also a former minister, told the Commons he had watched 'the start of the decline for something as painful and as difficult as pancreatic cancer' after his mother's diagnosis. 'My mother wasn't frightened of dying at all,' he continued. 'My mother would talk about it and she knew that she was going to die, but she was terrified of the pain, and on many occasions she said to me and Caroline my wife, 'can we make it end?' 'And of course we couldn't, but she had very, very good care from the NHS.' Mr Garnier later added: 'Contrary to this, I found myself two or three years ago going to the memorial service of one of my constituents who was a truly wonderful person, and she too had died of pancreatic cancer. 'But because she had been in Spain at the time – she spent quite a lot of time in Spain with her husband – she had the opportunity to go through the state-provided assisted dying programme that they do there. 'And I spoke to her widower – very briefly, but I spoke to him – and he was fascinating about it. He said it was an extraordinary, incredibly sad thing to have gone through, but it was something that made her suffering much less.' He said he was 'yet to be persuaded' that paving the way for assisted dying was 'a bad thing to do', and added: 'The only way I can possibly end today is by going through the 'aye' lobby.' If MPs back the Bill at third reading, it will face further scrutiny in the House of Lords at a later date.
