Assisted dying bill heading back to Parliament as MP says she wants to 'finish the job'

Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, announced that she would bring an identical bill to the one passed by the Commons in 2025.

The previous bill, which was brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, was not passed by the House of Lords after an unprecedented number of suggested amendments stalled the bill’s progress until it ran out of time in April.

The bill was criticised as having substantial flaws that risked leading to vulnerable people being pressured into ending their lives early, opponents claimed.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill proposed to allow people over the age of 18 who were expected to die within six months to be given assistance in ending their own lives, subject to certain safeguards.

Edwards told the BBC: "Laws passed in the House of Commons are then refined by the House of Lords but they don't have the opportunity to block them".

"It's perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job" she added.

Edwards plans to bring the same legislation back to parliament, threatening to trigger rarely used powers to override the objections of peers, if they refuse to pass the bill again.

In order for a bill to become law, both Houses of Parliament must agree on its final wording.

But the powers of the Parliament Act – which have only been enacted seven times over the past century – mean that if MPs pass an identical bill over two back-to-back parliamentary sessions, the bill cannot be blocked the second time.

Amendments can be suggested by the Lords, which, if agreed by the Commons, would then be added to the bill.

However, if they do not pass the bill as a whole before the session’s end – which usually takes around a year – the unamended bill can become law even without their approval.

If the Parliamentary Act is enacted, the bill would become law, despite major concerns being raised by several high-profile groups, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and several disability charities and hospices.

One such concern was raised by Adam Jogee, Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, who described it as “insane”.

He took to X to write: “We have debated this deeply divisive and flawed Bill for over a year and nothing has changed nothing.

“This Bill will hand sweeping, unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments..whoever they are

“Insane stuff”, he added.