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Peers will mount a new offensive to halt the assisted dying bill on Friday, tabling almost 1,000 new amendments to the legislation in an effort to run down the clock.
More than half of the 942 amendments have been tabled by just seven members of the House of Lords, all of them vocal opponents of assisted dying (AD). A source close to the bill said it was possible it could in effect get filibustered if peers pushed many amendments to a vote.
The bill – which began as a private member’s bill from Labour MP Kim Leadbeater – passed the House of Commons in June and is now in the House of Lords.
On Thursday night, 65 peers including two cabinet secretaries, the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and the former Tory leader Ruth Davidson warned that it would be anti-democratic for the Lords to kill the bill after it had been passed by a reasonable majority in the Commons.
Its opponents argue that the bill is not in the government’s manifesto and therefore the rules over the primacy of the Commons do not apply. Unlike in the Commons, the lord speaker does not have the power to choose or group amendments to limit them.
The signatories of the letter, including Gus O’Donnell, Andrew Turnbull, former lords speaker Helene Hayman, the scientist Robert Winston, as well as Kinnock, Davidson, and the former Green leader Natalie Bennett, said it was not the job of the Lords to stop the bill.
“Our role is to test and refine the bill where genuine improvements can be made, while respecting both the will of the Commons and the overwhelming support of the public.
“It is not our role to frustrate the clear democratic mandate expressed by elected Members.”
It added: “This is an issue of immense public importance, commanding support across society. The public rightly expects this House to conduct its scrutiny with integrity, care and a focus on practical improvement.
“We owe it to dying people to use the ample time available to make this law workable, safe and compassionate.”
In response to the letter, Labour’s Luciana Berger, who has opposed the bill, said: “The Lords select committee took evidence from a wide range of professional bodies and organisations including the EHRC, that strongly refuted any suggestion this bill is either safe or workable, with the EHRC itself strongly criticising the government’s equality impact assessment.
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“We also heard that palliative care developments have slowed in legislatures that have introduced AD. This bill is full of holes which vulnerable people will fall through and be harmed if peers don’t act to change and amend it.”
Those who have tabled the amendments to the bill include Ilora Finlay, a former doctor who has been a campaigner against assisted dying, as well as the former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, who was one of the key voices speaking to MPs to try to persuade them the bill would put disabled people at risk.
Both have tabled more than 100 amendments. The former health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has tabled 60.
Backers of the bill said there was still a high expectation that the bill would pass and that most peers would expect to follow convention. One said they were “confident that there is a clear majority in the Lords – including opponents as well as supporters of the bill – who believe the upper house should scrutinise but not seek to frustrate the will of the elected chamber”.
