Labour MP Lauren Edwards has launched a fresh bid to legalise assisted dying, after the Bill fell in the Lords in April.
A new bid to legalise assisted dying has been launched after proposed legislation ran out of time in the House of Lords earlier this year.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards said she will reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill after coming second in a ballot to decide who is at the front of the queue for a Private Member’s Bill.
The Bill, brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in 2024, passed two votes in the House of Commons but peers ran out of time to conclude their debate in the Lords before Parliament was prorogued in April.
Peers faced allegations of filibustering the Bill after more than 1,200 amendments were put forward, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers.
Opponents branded it “hopelessly flawed” while supporters accused them of a “denial of democracy”.
The Bill proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
In a statement, Rochester and Strood MP Ms Edwards said: “This long overdue change to the law was supported by MPs during the last session of Parliament and was prevented from passing only by the decision of a minority in the House of Lords to talk it out and stop it coming to a vote.
“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.
“We owe it to all those terminally ill people and their families who are depending on this Bill to ensure that Parliament can come to a final decision on the question of choice at the end of life.
“And I believe it undermines public trust in our democracy more widely if we cannot deliver on a measure that is supported by a very large majority of voters in all parts of the country.”
She said MPs “did not take our decision lightly and, as the elected chamber, we had a right to expect that decision to be respected by the Lords, whose job it is to revise legislation not to block it”.
There is a chance that the Parliament Act could be used to get the Bill through.
That Act, a rarely used piece of legislation, allows for Bills that have been backed by the Commons in two successive sessions but rejected by peers to pass into law without Lords approval.
Ms Edwards said it was not her intention that the Parliament Act should apply to the Bill, adding: “There will be no need for that if peers complete their unfinished business in the normal way but we cannot allow an unelected minority to frustrate the democratic process for a second time.”
Dame Esther Rantzen, a leading voice in the campaign to legalise assisted dying, told the Press Association: “Like so many other people who are themselves terminally ill or have watched loved ones die in pain, I am deeply grateful to Lauren Edwards MP for deciding to take the assisted dying Bill as her Private Member’s Bill.
“I was absolutely horrified by the way a very small number of peers obstructed the careful, safe, well-thought through Bill the House of Commons voted for and the general public want.
“I hope and pray that the House of Lords is unable to obstruct this crucial, humane and compassionate piece of legislation which so many millions in other countries are already benefiting from.
“Thank you, Lauren, we’ve never met, but I have the highest regard for your integrity and compassion, as demonstrated by your courageous support for this crucial piece of legislation.”
Ms Leadbeater said on social media: “Such positive news that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will be reintroduced to Parliament to enable the House of Lords to finish the work they started in order to give dying people choice, compassion and dignity.”
