Vital Signs: Assisted dying

Briefing · Parliament

MPs debate whether Lords blocked or legitimately scrutinised the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

1. 01The central dispute in the 8 June Westminster Hall debate, opened by Lewis Atkinson (Labour, Sunderland Central), was whether a small number of peers had filibustered the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill or exercised legitimate scrutiny. Atkinson cited journalist Rod Liddle, an opponent of the Bill, as saying that his 'side won by cheating', while Jim Shannon (DUP, Strangford) argued that amendments were tabled or co-signed by more than 90 peers and that opposition came from 140 peers in various forms, making the filibuster accusation a 'total fiction'.
2. 02Several Conservative MPs voiced constitutional objections to using the Parliament Act 1911 to force the Bill through. Kit Malthouse (Conservative, North West Hampshire) said the Bill's passage had 'shocked' him and he now questioned the Lords' value, but Dame Meg Hillier (Labour, Hackney South and Shoreditch) warned that invoking the Parliament Act for a private Member's Bill would set a dangerous precedent for any future 'mad, bad or dangerous' Government. John Cooper (Conservative, Dumfries and Galloway) noted the Salisbury-Addison convention did not apply because the Government had declared neutrality on the Bill.
3. 03Supporters of the Bill argued the Commons scrutiny had been extensive and decisive. Daniel Zeichner (Labour, Cambridge) and Lizzi Collinge (Labour, Morecambe and Lunesdale) said the Bill Committee sat for more than 100 hours, more than any recent Government Bill, and Daniel Francis (Labour, Bexleyheath and Crayford), who voted against the Bill at Second and Third Reading, noted that the original Bill had to be corrected in Committee because it excluded people with cancer and other conditions covered by the Equality Act 2010.
4. 04The question of what should happen next to the Bill was raised but left unresolved. Sir Alan Campbell (Labour, Tynemouth) said that if a new MP picked up the Bill in the private Members' ballot and invoked the Parliament Act, 'there would be rules around that', while Sir Andrew Mitchell (Conservative, Sutton Coldfield) warned that without the Parliament Act the same peers would filibuster again. Liam Conlon (Labour, Beckenham and Penge) said palliative care commitments must not be derailed and maintained concerns about mental capacity provisions in the Bill.
5. 05Outside the main petition debate, the assisted dying Bill was referenced briefly in several other proceedings. The Lord Bishop of Manchester, in the Lords debate on the Government's legislative agenda on 3 September 2026, said that if the Lords had to consider assisted dying again it should be 'in the context of a proper offer of palliative care to all'. In the Commons debate on the legacy of Jo Cox on 11 June 2026, Sir Andrew Mitchell (Conservative, Sutton Coldfield) praised Kim Leadbeater for the 'incredible decency and probity' she showed in pursuing the Bill.