Ask your MP to oppose attempts to force assisted suicide into law by bypassing the House of Lords
Ask your MP to oppose attempts to force assisted suicide into law by bypassing the House of Lords
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is currently in the House of Lords. But attention is already turning to what happens if it fails to progress or simply runs out of parliamentary time.
Assisted suicide pressure group, Dignity in Dying, along with Lord Falconer and other campaigners, are now lobbying MPs to try to use what is known as the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords and force the assisted suicide Bill into law in the next Parliamentary session.
It is very common for Private Members’ Bills to fall because of insufficient parliamentary time. Forcing through the assisted suicide Bill using the Parliament Acts would set a concerning precedent that future Governments could bypass the House of Lords in passing legislation by encouraging MPs to take on non-manifesto commitments as Private Members’ Bills.
PROPER SCRUTINY OF THE BILL IS VITAL
Contrary to misleading claims that the House of Lords has been filibustering the Bill, Peers have provided scrutiny that was not possible in the House of Commons – you may recall that there was insufficient time at Report Stage in the Commons for dozens of important amendments to be debated.
When accusations of filibustering first arose before Christmas, Sir David Beamish, former Clerk of the Parliaments, confirmed the legitimacy of scrutiny that had taken place so far, telling the Hansard Society podcast, “so far we haven’t seen anything look like filibustering”. Scrutiny has been similarly appropriate since.
EXTENSIVE OPPOSITION TO THE BILL
Assisted suicide campaigners have also falsely claimed that the Bill is being blocked in the Lords by a small number of Peers. This is simply untrue. So far, 131 Peers have either spoken against the Bill or signed amendments in the House of Lords because of concerns with the Bill.
This number includes Peers appointed to the House of Lords because of their expertise in relevant areas, including a former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the former Chief Executive of NHS England, a leading Professor of palliative medicine, Peers living with disabilities, and legal experts, including a former Attorney General.
THE BILL DOES NOT NEED TO RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
Suggestions that the House of Lords must return the Bill to the Commons are also incorrect, given that it is a Private Members’ Bill that was not a manifesto commitment. The House of Lords Constitution Committee has confirmed this, explaining that “It is constitutionally appropriate for the House to scrutinise the Bill and, if so minded, vote to amend, or reject it.”
The Hansard Society has similarly confirmed, “The House of Lords has the authority to reject, delay, or otherwise block the assisted dying bill.” In its lead article on 12 January, The Times newspaper stated, “There would be nothing constitutionally untoward about Ms Leadbeater’s bill running aground in the Lords.”
The real reason why extensive scrutiny has been required in the House of Lords is that the Bill sponsor in the Commons repeatedly ignored necessary amendments that were tabled at Committee and Report stages, and the sponsor in the Lords has also consistently failed to bring forward meaningful amendments to meet the concerns of professional bodies who would be tasked with implementing the Bill and of groups representing vulnerable people who would be put at risk by it.
BYPASSING THE HOUSE OF LORDS IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE PUBLIC
Taking the unprecedented route of using the Parliament Acts to bypass House of Lords’ scrutiny of a Private Members’ Bill would be politically explosive. It would be the first time ever that the Parliament Acts would be used for a Private Members’ Bill – and polling confirms that taking this approach is not supported by the public.
A new poll from More In Common, the organisation formerly chaired by Kim Leadbeater, shows that the majority of the public does not support bypassing the House of Lords to force through the assisted suicide Bill.
Despite the polling including leading questions in favour of the Bill, 54% of the public polled thought the Bill should either not return or would have to pass both Houses again – whereas only 46% of those polled thought the Bill should bypass the House of Lords.
The polling showed that majorities do not support the bypassing of the House of Lords among both men and women, and among voters of every major political party.
The results of this poll follow earlier polling, which showed that 70% of the public who expressed a view believe Peers should be able to vote against a Private Members’ Bill, like the assisted suicide Bill, if they believe it would harm vulnerable people.
TAKE ACTION
Despite this unprecedented move not being supported by the public, assisted suicide pressure group, Dignity in Dying, is currently flooding MPs’ inboxes with emails from supporters asking their MPs to support the use of the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords and force the assisted suicide Bill into law in the next Parliamentary session.
It’s vital that it is clear to MPs that their constituents do not support this profoundly inappropriate attempt to force assisted suicide into law.
Enter your postcode above to use our EasyAction tool to write to your MP and ask them to oppose attempts to force the assisted suicide Bill into law by using the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords.
