Over 100 peers say Lords ‘failed’ on assisted dying and call for swift decision
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returns to the Commons on Friday.
More than 100 peers have urged MPs to allow Parliament to finish the job of deciding whether to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returns to the Commons on Friday, after it was effectively talked out in the House of Lords, where the tabling of more than 1,200 amendments meant it ran out of time in Parliament’s last session.
Dozens of members of the House of Lords on Sunday said it was a “great disappointment” to them that the upper chamber “failed to do what was rightly expected of us” because of “delaying tactics by a small minority of opponents”.
They wrote in a letter to MPs: “It is for the Commons to decide on whether to support and pass the Bill. It is for the Lords to scrutinise and, where appropriate, amend and then return the Bill to the Commons.
“If the Commons decide to return the Bill to the Lords, then the process can be completed. The filibuster by the minority in the Lords has undermined trust in our processes.
“A small minority of peers should not decide policy, particularly on an issue like this with very significant public support.”
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The signatories said that if the Bill is “sent back to us again as quickly as possible, as we hope it will be, the Lords will be able to complete the task that we were prevented from finishing earlier this year.”
The letter also said: “The many terminally ill people and their families who are depending on Parliament to pass this long overdue change to the law should not be asked to wait any longer than absolutely necessary for us to come to a decision.”
The calls were led by former Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock and senior Conservatives including former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Ruth Davidson.
The Bill proposes 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.
While it previously passed the House of Commons, it must now get through that chamber again to return to the House of Lords.
It fell in the Lords in April after more than 1,200 amendments were put forward, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers.
Although the Bill did pass two votes in the Commons, the second one, which took place in 2025, saw the majority in favour of the Bill narrow to 23 from 55.
Then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour on both occasions, but his successor Andy Burnham has decided not to vote either way.
MPs will vote according to their conscience on the Bill, rather than along party lines, and the Government is retaining its neutral stance.
Supporters have previously suggested the Parliament Act could be invoked to override any further objections from peers.
The rarely used 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, and backers have said they are confident the Act would apply if the Bill was taken through a second time.