A LABOUR MP vowed to introduce a new bid to legalise assisted suicide today after the previous attempt stalled in the House of Lords and ran out of time.

MP Lauren Edwards urged peers “not to block” her reintroduction of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Its first iteration, brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater back in 2024, passed two votes in the Commons but was finally halted when peers ran out of time to conclude their debate before Parliament was prorogued in April. 

More than 1,200 amendments were proposed, reflecting concerns about the impact of the legislation on vulnerable people raised by professional bodies such as the royal colleges of psychiatrists (over the consequences for suicide prevention duties, for example) and pathologists (which objected to deaths from assisted suicide not requiring notification to a coroner).

The Bill would have allowed adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for assisted death, subject to approval from two doctors and a specialist panel.

Rochester and Strood MP Ms Edwards indicated the Parliament Act could be used to get the Bill through. It allows legislation to be passed without Lords approval if it is backed by the Commons in two successive sessions but rejected by peers.

Ms Edwards said: “I believe it is a fundamental democratic principle that the elected chamber, the House of Commons, should decide what does and does not become law in this country.”

But Labour MP Ashley Dalton warned against giving “sweeping unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments.

She said: “We have debated this deeply divisive and flawed assisted dying Bill for over a year and supporters have refused to listen or to make the necessary changes.”

Disabled People Against Cuts campaigner Sophia Kleanthous told the Star: “We are deeply concerned that Lauren Edwards MP has used her PMB to bring forward a flawed Bill that was already deemed by Disabled People’s Organisations, Royal Colleges and domestic abuse charities as unsafe and rife with coercion.

“The indepth scrutiny and additional safe guards built into the bill during the Lords could now be lost if the Parliament Acts are triggered.

“We are calling on MPs and Peers not to support or vote for this Bill that will leave many of our lives hanging in the balance.”