Assisted dying bill 'fundamentally deficient', veteran MPs warn ahead of crucial vote on proposed laws
The Mother and Father of the House of Commons write for LBC today that the bill - which MPs will debate on Friday - is "hampered by unanswered questions and insufficient safeguards"
Britain's two longest-serving sitting MPs have urged their colleagues across the political divide to "unite" by rejecting the "fundamentally deficient" assisted dying bill.
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The Mother and Father of the House of Commons warn today that the bill - which MPs will debate on Friday - is hampered by "unanswered questions and insufficient safeguards" and would "quickly unravel" if it became law.
Writing for LBC today, Diane Abbot, the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, say legalising assisted dying would fail to address Britain's "patchy palliative and social care" services.
The private member’s bill to legalise assisted dying was introduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards.
A previous version of the bill proposed by Kim Leadbeater passed by a majority of 23 in the House of Commons but ran out of time in the Lords.
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The two senior politicians argue that more is known about the impact of the proposed legislation since the last time it came before MPs.
"Irrespective of one’s views on reform of the Upper House, our colleagues in the House of Lords indisputably spent considerable time, expertise and energy teasing out the intricacies and real-world impact of the proposed legislation," they write.
"They did so more effectively than our House’s procedures allowed. Their deliberations revealed a Bill that raised far more questions than it answered."
They slammed the bill's "fill-in-the-blanks" approach and state its reliance on delegated legislation would give ministers "wide-ranging powers to legislate on the fine details however they see fit".
The bill, which MPs will debate on Friday, would allow adults with less than six months to live to end their lives, following the approval of a panel of experts.
A previous version of the bill collapsed in the Lords after peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments, meaning it ran out of time to become law.
The introduction of a bill identical to the one proposed by Ms Leadbeater paves the way for MPs to force it into law without the approval of peers by triggering the 1949 Parliament Act.
Under the terms of the Act, if an identical bill is approved by MPs in the Commons in two successive parliamentary sessions then peers cannot block its progress a second time.
Ms Abbot and Sir Edward warn that invoking the Parliament Act to get the legislation through would be an "unconscionable derogation of our responsibility as elected representatives".
"If legislation is inadequate, we must take action to address it instead of leaving gaps for others to possibly fill. Otherwise, we risk vulnerable people being gravely endangered."