LIVE: Assisted dying bill faces crunch Commons vote as MPs reject law

Watch our live stream as MPs debate the assisted dying bill ahead of a crucial vote in the Commons this afternoon:

Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith, who supports the Bill, said outside Parliament: ‘I’m both nervous and confident. I’m nervous to say: ‘We have won’ because I’m superstitious.

‘It’s so moving to see all these people with placards of people they’ve lost or people who are dying of cancer.

‘It’s hard not to cry because I think they have done such a good job, let’s hope we’ve won.’

Labour MP Naz Shah cautioned that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is ‘not safe’.

Referring to her amendment 14 to prevent a patient meeting the requirements for an assisted death ‘solely as a result of voluntarily stopping eating or drinking’, which MPs backed earlier on Friday, and a further amendment 38 which was not added to the Bill, Ms Shah told the Commons: ‘This is not the anorexia loophole that has been closed – that was another amendment.

‘When people stop voluntarily eating and drinking, that is not what happens to people with anorexia. People with anorexia stop eating and drinking because they have a psychiatric illness. These are two categorically different issues.

‘So I must make it clear, absolutely clear, even though amendment 14 has passed today, this amendment does not address concerns about anorexia or close that loophole.’

Ending her speech, Ms Shah told MPs: ‘The question for all members is simply this, ‘what is the margin of error when it comes to something as serious as death that we are willing to risk today?”

The chief executive of Care Not Killing called for MPs to reject the Bill.

Speaking outside Parliament, Dr Gordon Macdonald said: ‘There are still lots of problems with this bill, and MPs should reject it today.

‘As this is a private members’ bill, the MP in charge of the bill was able to choose who she wanted in the committee, choose who she wanted to give evidence and decide which amendments would be accepted and which wouldn’t, so I believe the whole process is completely flawed and I believe the Government needs to hold responsibility for this.

‘Keir Starmer should have taken responsibility for this.’

He added: ‘We’re seeing more MPs who are voting against it which doesn’t surprise me as the more people think about this issue the more likely they are to support it.

‘Our polling of the general public shows that to be the case. Support drops from 70% down to 13% when they consider the argument against us.

‘Most people, when thinking about the practical implications of this, for those most vulnerable, they change their minds.’

Outside the House of Commons, tensions are rising between activists on both sides of the assisted dying debate with police forced to intervene.

In Parliament Square, campaigners opposing the Bill, wearing white T-shirts, appeared to outnumber those for the Bill, wearing pink T-shirts.

Campaigners against the Bill chanted ‘We are not dead yet’ and ‘Kill the Bill, not the ill’.

A display was erected with a gravestone reading ‘R.I.P: The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Bury it deep’, and behind were two mounds apparently meant to resemble graves.

One campaigner against the Bill could be seen being spoken to by police after shouting at an opposing activist.

Labour MP and Mother of the House Diane Abbott was speaking a short while ago – she is a leading opponent of today’s bill.

In a rare display of cross-party respect, after the tablet she was reading her speech from went wrong, several Conservatice MPs stood up and asked for an intervention – where they can interrupt a speaker to ask a question – so that she could refind her place.

After a brief pause she was able to continue speaking on behalf of her constituents.

She said was not opposed to the principle of assisted dying, but urged MPs to reject the Bill for fear that ‘people will lose their lives who do not need to’.

The Labour MP said: ‘I came to this House to be a voice for the voiceless. It hasn’t always been favoured by my own leadership, but that is why I came to the House. Who could be more voiceless than somebody who is in their sickbed and believes they are dying?

‘I ask members in this debate to speak up for the voiceless one more time, because there is no doubt that if this Bill is passed in its current form, people will lose their lives who do not need to, and they will be amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society.

‘It is not because I am opposed to assisted dying in principle, but because my concern is for vulnerable and marginalised persons, vulnerable and marginalised communities, that I implore the House to reject this Bill.’

Labour MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh told the House of Commons of her late sister Baroness Margaret McDonagh (pictured), former Labour Party general secretary.

The Mitcham and Morden MP said: ‘On Tuesday, it is the second anniversary of my sister’s death. Three weeks prior to her death, we took her to hospital because she had a blood infection, and in spite of agreeing to allow her into intensive care to sort out that blood infection, the consultant decided that she shouldn’t go because she had a brain tumour and she was going to die.

‘She was going to die, but not at that moment. I’m sure Mr Speaker can understand that a very big row ensued.

‘I won that row. She was made well, she came home and she died peacefully. What does (Sir James) think would happen in identical circumstances, if this Bill existed?’

Sir James replied: ‘She asks me to speculate into a set of circumstances which are personal and painful, and I suspect she and I both know that the outcome could have been very, very different, and the the moments that she had with her sister, just like the moments I had with my dear friend, those moments might have been lost.’

Sir James Cleverly has urged MPs not to ‘sub-contract’ scrutiny of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to peers and said the promsied ‘golden standard’ of protections has not materialised.

At the Bill’s third reading debate, Sir James told MPs: ‘At the second reading debate, I made the point that we need to think about the detail of this Bill and not just vote in accordance with the broad principles.’

Referring to the future passage of this Bill, if it clears the Commons, the Conservative former minister added: ‘We were told at second reading that a lot of the concerns, a lot of the worries, a lot of the detailed questions would be resolved through the committee process. We were promised the gold-standard, a judicially underpinned set of protections and safeguards.

‘Those protections did not make it through committee.

‘And I’ve also heard where people are saying, ‘well, there are problems, there are still issues, there are still concerns I have’, well, ‘the Lords will have their work to do’.

‘But I don’t think it is right and none of us should think that it is right to sub-contract our job to the other place (the House of Lords).’

Sir James Cleverly has said his view was driven by ‘concerns about the practicalities’ of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

The Conservative former minister told the Commons: ‘I have no doubt the vast majority – probably every single member and right honourable member in this House – is sympathetic with the underlying motivation of this Bill, which is to ease suffering in others and to try and avoid suffering where possible.’

Sir James described himself as an atheist and added: ‘I’ve had this said to me on a number of occasions, ‘if you had seen someone suffering, you would agree with this Bill’.

‘Well, Mr Speaker, I have seen someone suffering – my closest friend earlier this year died painfully of oesophageal cancer and I was with him in the final weeks of his life.

‘So I come at this not from a position of faith nor from a position of ignorance.’

Keir Starmer has dismissed warnings that the proposed legalisation on assisted dying is being rushed.

The Prime Minister insisted that plenty of time had been devoted to the controversial plan despite dozens of his MPs pleading for it to receive more scrutiny.

He also indicated that he will back the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the knife-edge vote tomorrow.

But he said he would not try to sway opinion as the Government has remained officially neutral – though he previously promised leading campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen he would make time for assisted dying to come to the Commons.

Asked during the G7 summit if he will be voting for the Bill, the PM replied: ‘I’ve done my best not to influence the vote.

Choosing not to support the assisted dying Bill is ‘not a neutral act’, Kim Leadbeater has told the Commons.

The Labour MP for Spen Valley said: ‘It is an either/or decision for us today – either we vote for the safe effective workable reform contained in this Bill or we say the status quo is acceptable.

‘Over recent months I have heard hundreds of stories from people who have lost loved ones in deeply difficult and traumatic circumstances… along with many terminally ill people themselves.’

She added: ‘Not supporting the Bill today is not a neutral act, it is a vote for the status quo… and it fills me with despair to think MPs could be here in another 10 years’ time hearing the same stories.’

Conservative MP James Cleverly is leading the response for those opposed to today’s bill.

‘I come at this not from a point of faith or a point of ignorance,’ Mr Cleverly said, as he told MPs he had recently witnessed the ‘painful death’ of a close friend from esophageal cancer.

‘We are making an incredibly important, a fundamental change in the relationship between medical professionals and those they serve,’ he continued.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater said the assisted dying Bill will ‘offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it’.

Speaking at third reading, the Spen Valley MP told the Commons: ‘I have been pleased to work with members on all sides of the debate to ensure that this legislation is something that Parliament can be proud of.

‘A cogent, workable Bill that has one simple thread running through it – the need to correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it.

‘I won’t go into the amendments in detail as I know that is not the purpose of this debate, but whether it’s adding further safeguards and protections for… patients through additional training around coercive control; or the addition of specialist expertise through the inclusion of multidisciplinary panels; widening the provision for professionals to opt-out of the assisted dying process; providing additional employment protections; or prohibiting the advertising of assisted dying – cross-party working has strengthened the Bill.’

With votes on amendments to the bill now complete, the Speaker has opened the debate.

Kim Leadbeater stood up to introduce the bill at third reading, but has been interrupted multiple times with questions from opposing members of the House.

Ms Leadbeater appealed for today’s proceedings to show the public ‘the best of Parliament’ and for all members’ views to be treated with respect.

The daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen said she did not sleep last night in anticipation for the vote on assisted dying.

Rebecca Wilcox, who was outside Parliament on Friday in support of the Dignity in Dying campaign, said she hoped the Bill would be passed and go on to the House of Lords.

She said: ‘This is such an important time for this Bill, the third and final vote, and then hopefully it will go on to the House of Lords.

‘It couldn’t be more entrenched with safeguards; it couldn’t be a kinder, more compassionate bill that respects choice at the end of life, that respects kindness and empathy and gives us all an option when every other option has been taken away.

‘It would be the perfect tool for a palliative care doctor to have in their med bag.’

A ban on advertising assisted dying would be extended to all of the UK, should the Bill pass, MPs have agreed.

They also voted for the UK-wide extension of regulations about approved substances intended to be used to help terminally ill patients to die.

They also approved an opt-out for medical professionals being extended to Scotland.

MPs voted 275 in favour, 209 against, majority 66.

MPs have now returned to the Chamber to begin debating the bill as a whole.

The Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has joined pro-assisted dying camapigners outside Parliament this morning as MPs prepare to decide whether to pass the bill later this afternoon.

Leith has been a high-profile activist in favour of the practice, driven by her experiences before the deaths of her brother and first husband.

‘My first husband had a horrible death,’ she wrote in the Guardian last year, adding: ‘It could be the solution for most of the people who want to die, that if you could take away the pain and the horrible death, a lot of them wouldn’t want to die.

‘But some do. They’ve had enough of this life and they want out. My feeling is that it should be their death, their decision.

‘My brother David had terminal bone cancer and desperately wanted to die. Fortunately, it was just three weeks of utter agony. But those weeks were ones during which he should have relaxed and said goodbye to family.’

MPs – with the support of Kim Leadbeater – have backed an amendment by Munira Wilson which would commission a new assessment on the state of palliative care, a move first proposed by the bill’s opponents.

The amendment was also backed by charity Marie Curie, which provides palliative and end of life care.

Chief Executive Matthew Reed said: ‘If assisted dying is legalised, it is more crucial than ever that our governments across the UK ensure that there is palliative care available for anyone who needs it. It is impossible to imagine that this could be achieved without an assessment of the quality and distribution of palliative care services currently available.

‘While we welcome that the assisted dying bill has been amended to require such an assessment, this will not on its own make the improvements needed to guarantee everyone is able to access the palliative care they need. 

‘We will continue to make the case to the UK government that we also need to see a palliative care strategy for England – supported by a sustainable funding settlement – which puts palliative and end of life care at the heart of NHS priorities for the coming years.’

MPs have agreed that ministers should get powers to update the National Health Service Act 2006 as part of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, to include voluntary assisted dying services as part of the NHS’s purposes.

Amid fears the Bill could become ‘the Trojan horse that breaks the NHS’, aired last Friday, Labour MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh pushed her amendment 12 to a vote, which would have blocked ministers from broadening the NHS’s purposes without a fresh bill.

But MPs rejected Dame Siobhain’s proposal 269 votes to 223, majority 46.

The majority behind kim Leadbeater’s campaign has fallen slightly – it should be noted that MPs travelling from further afield are still arriving at the Commons today, with some not expected to be in the Chamber until shortly before the final vote.

A proposal to disapply the presumption that a person has capacity unless the opposite is established in cases of assisted dying requests, has been rejected by MPs.

The Commons voted 213 to 266, majority 53 to reject amendment 24, which was tabled by Labour MP Daniel Francis (Bexleyheath and Crayford).

This is the same majority as the previous amendment that was rejected.

Kim Leadbeater had urged MPs not to vote for this amendment, implying she does have strong support in the House as this is a victory for her.

Robert Jenrick has made an emotional appeal against assisted dying, as MPs prepare for a momentous vote on whether to let the terminally ill end their own lives.

Writing for the Daily Mail below, Mr Jenrick reveals how he helped look after his grandmother, Dorothy, as a teenage boy – and how she continued to bring joy to the family as she defied a terminal diagnosis for nearly a decade.

The Shadow Justice Secretary says the prospect of legalising assisted dying ‘fills me with dread’, adding: ‘My Nana felt like she was a burden. I know how much she hated the indignity she felt at having to ask my Mum or us to help her with basic needs.

‘People like her – and there are many such people – may consider an assisted death as another act of kindness to us. How wrong they would be.’

He goes on: ‘Our society pays little regard to end of life care. We need to do much more as a country to help the elderly, like my Nana, in their final years.’

Read more:

MPs have supported a safeguard which would prevent a person meeting the requirements for an assisted death ‘solely as a result of voluntarily stopping eating or drinking’.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’s sponsor Labour MP Kim Leadbeater had previously signalled her support for the amendment, which was tabled by Labour MP Naz Shah (Pictured, MP for Bradford West).

Ms Leadbeater said this, combined with existing safeguards in the Bill, would rule out people with anorexia falling into its scope.

The amendment was passed on the nod, meaning there was no debate on the issue as it was ruled all MPs broadly agreed.

MPs in the House of Commons are currently voting on amendments to the bill, and have rejected a change which would see those motiviated by mental disorders or suicidal ideation restricted from ending their lives.

One, brought by Labour MP Naz Shah, is designed to close the ‘anorexia loophole’ by restricting access to assisted dying for people who voluntarily stop eating and drinking.

Campaigners have warned that the bill in its current state could see anorexia patients fall through the cracks and meet the criteria to end their lives, despite the condition on its own not being a terminal disease.

Just now, MPs voted to reject an amendment which would have prevented a person who is substantially motivated by feeling they are a burden, from qualifying for assisted dying.

Conservative MP Rebecca Paul’s new clause 16 stated that a wish to end one’s own life should not be substantially motivated by factors such as a mental disorder, disability or suicidal ideation.

The Commons voted 208 to 261, majority 53 against.

Labour MP Ashley Dalton has said she will not back today’s assisted dying bill in a poignant message addressing her incurable cancer diagnosis.

The West Lancashire MP took to social media with a lengthy statement in which she said she ‘knowns how it feels to face your own death’.

She said: ‘I know how it feels to face your own death. I have metastatic cancer and during this debate considering how I might die, if I were terminally ill, has not been an entirely hypothetical exercise.

‘I have first-hand experience of receiving the news that you have an incurable fatal disease. I know how the fear and grief can consume a person and how dying can seem easier than living through the unknown.

‘An amendment requiring anyone seeking an assisted death to undergo a psychiatric assessment was rejected.

‘It is still possible for people with mental illnesses to qualify if they have a co-existing terminal condition. I do not believe adequate safeguards have been put in place to prevent coercion.

‘I believe that, if the bill is passed, some terminally ill people will feel obliged to choose assisted dying if family suggest it, to save care costs, or not to feel a burden on family or the NHS. I also think that some people will choose to die out of fear or because they do not believe they can access adequate end of life care.’

Labour Whip Vicky Foxcroft has resigned as a Government whip over the party’s welfare proposals just hours before today’s vote on assisted dying.

Ms Foxcroft, who was shadow disability minister between 2020 and 2024, said in a letter to the Prime Minister she could not vote ‘for reforms which include cuts to disabled people’s finances’.

The Lewisham North MP accepted ‘the need to address the ever-increasing welfare bill’ but did not believe the proposed cuts, including to PiP payments, ‘should be part of the solution’.

‘I have wrestled with whether I should resign or remain in the Government and fight for change from within. Sadly it is now seems that we are not going to get the changes I desperately wanted to see,’ she added.

Fortunately for the government, today’s vote is a free vote, meaning MPs are able to vote with their conscience – so the loss won’t be felt today.

Among the proponents of assisted dying who are gathering outside Parliament this morning is Rebecca Wilcox, the daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen.

Dame Esther has been campaigning for assisted dying to be legalised for years and has become a poster girl for the movement after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023.

Campaigners for and against assisted dying are gathering outside Parliament this morning, hoping to be able to celebrate after the vote later today.

Members of the ‘No’ campaign held signs reading ‘Kill the bill not the ill’ and ‘Don’t make doctors killers’.

Members of the ‘Yes’ campaign held posters calling for dignity in death.

It is impossible to know exactly how many MPs have changed their position on today’s bill since the vote in November – but privately, some have admitted to getting cold feet about the proposals.

In what will be seen as a blow to the Bill, four Labour MPs confirmed on the eve of the vote that they will switch sides to oppose the proposed new law.

Labour’s Paul Foster, Jonathan Hinder, Markus Campbell-Savours and Kanishka Narayan wrote to fellow MPs to voice concerns about the safety of the proposed legislation.

They branded it ‘drastically weakened’, citing the scrapping of the High Court Judge safeguard as a key reason.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also urged her MPs to vote against the legislation, describing it as ‘a bad Bill’ despite being ‘previously supportive of assisted suicide’.

Sorcha Eastwood, MP for Lagan Valley in Northern Ireland, has confirmed she will be able to attend Parliament and vote today after fearing she would not be able to due to contracting Covid.

The Alliance Party MP announced on social media this morning she was now free of Covid, posting a photo of her negative test and a snap from the airport as she prepared to fly to London.

She added: ‘I urge any MP with doubts today to vote AGAINST.

‘This is law; not an in principle vote, and the Bill as it stands is incoherent, dangerous and the societal outworkings will be absolutely devastating. Please vote NO.’

It’s being reported that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could miss today’s crunch vote on the bill amid escalating global tensions, Times Political Editor Steven Swinford reports.

A government source said that no final decision has been made, but he could end up missing the vote depending on his commitments as he seeks to de-escalate the conflict between Iran and Israel.

The two Middle East countries have been exchanging missile fire for days now after Israel launched a surprise attack on nuclear and military targets.

Sir Keir has previously been vocal in his support for assisted dying.

Lisa Nandy said she hopes to see the assisted dying Bill clear the House of Commons on Friday and continue its progress to becoming law.

The Culture Secretary was asked by Sky News if she had changed her mind about supporting the Bill, after a group of Labour MPs announced they would now be voting against after previously offering support.

‘I’m still a supporter of this Bill. I’ve had a longstanding personal commitment to change the law on assisted dying with appropriate safeguards. And I think there has been a very considered and respectful debate over the last few months on all sides,’ Ms Nandy told the broadcaster.

The Cabinet minister said she respected ‘the views of colleagues who take a different view’, adding: ‘I hope the Bill succeeds today. If it does pass the House of Commons stages, of course it will go on to the House of Lords, where there will be more debate and there may be more changes.

‘But I have believed as an individual – not as a Government because we don’t take a view – but as an individual for a long time, that the law needs to change and I continue to hold that position.’

Last November, MPs voted in favour of today’s bill by 330 votes to 275.

Since then, there has been talk of MPs in favour changing their minds, often due to concerns about the lack of safeguards to protect some of society’s most vulnerable people.

Key influences include the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which previously said it could not support the bill in its current form.

But the architect of the bill Kim Leadbeater remains confident it will pass.

She said last night: ‘There might be some small movement in the middle, some people might change their mind or will change their mind the other way.

‘But fundamentally, I do not anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded.’

The vote on legalising assisted dying is on a knife-edge today with both Yes and No campaigns saying they are on course to win the increasingly close campaign.

Kim Leadbeater said she is confident MPs will tomorrow back her plan to allow terminally ill people with six months or less to live to be helped to commit suicide, when it is put to a final vote tomorrow.

But opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill also believe they may have the numbers to see it off the proposed decriminalisation in England and Wales.

Ms Leadbeater has argued terminally ill people must be given choice at the end of their lives, but opponents of her Bill have warned it fails to guarantee protections for society’s most vulnerable.

The legislation passed a preliminary vote last November by 55 votes.

Today MPs will have their first chance to vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – more commonly known as the assisted dying bill – since November.

Proceedings will get underway at 9.30am, when MPs will vote on amendments to the bill.

The debate is expected to start at 10:30am, before the vote on the bill as a whole takes place at around 2:30pm this afternoon.

It means, in what could be a seismic outcome for the country, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will either clear the House of Commons and move to the Lords, or fail completely.

As it stands, the proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.

MPs are entitled to have a free vote on the Bill, meaning they decide according to their conscience rather than along party lines.

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live blog on a crucial day in the debate over whether to legalise assisted dying.

There will be a key vote in the House of Commons later today, with voting on amendments and a debate for MPs coming up this morning.

We’ll bring you all the latest updates as we get them.