New polling has revealed that the public does not support Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, even among those who support assisted suicide in principle, and it does not support forcing the Bill into law without the consent of the House of Lords.
The polling, undertaken by JL Partners in April 2026, reveals that only 14% of respondents disagree that the Government should only be able to push a Bill through Parliament without full scrutiny from the House of Lords, if it was in their manifesto and the public voted for it.
Additionally, 77% of respondents believe that, if a Bill isn’t watertight and hasn’t been fully scrutinised, it should not pass into legislation.
95% of the 2,048 respondents stated that legalising doctors assisting people who are terminally ill to end their own lives was not in their top three most important issues that Keir Starmer and the Labour government should be addressing right now.
Polling reveals that people do not understand what the assisted suicide Bill entails
The polling also revealed that, despite 80% of respondents believing that they understood the details of the assisted suicide Bill, only 38% of 1,635 respondents actually understood that it was about providing lethal drugs to allow terminally ill people to end their lives.
11% of these respondents believed that the assisted suicide Bill involved providing end-of-life hospice and palliative care to people who are terminally ill; 17% believed it meant offering drugs and sedatives to reduce suffering in the final stages of life, including unconsciousness before the individual passes away; a further 17% believed it meant giving patients the right to refuse or stop life continuing treatment; 10% believed that it was about an instruction that no attempts should be made to resuscitate an individual or restart the heart or breathing if they stop.
61% of respondents stated that they believed important bills should go through full Government consultation and expert scrutiny before Parliament votes on them.
61% of respondents also believe that it is important that we prevent the possibility of people being coerced or pressured into ending their lives, even if it means that terminally ill people are unable to receive assistance to end their lives.
A majority of respondents, 56%, also stated that they do not believe that the NHS is currently in a fit state to provide people with the option of doctors legally assisting people who are terminally ill to end their own lives.
Only 38% of respondents agreed that it would be acceptable for the NHS to fund assisted dying if it means there will be less money available to pay for other things it does.
56% of respondents stated that they were concerned about potential abuse or misuse of doctors being able to legally end the lives of terminally ill people, while only 17% said they were not concerned.
The public wants much stricter eligibility thresholds than the assisted suicide Bill currently has
Over two-thirds of respondents (67%) stated that they did not believe that individuals experiencing severe, treatment-resistant mental suffering, such as forms of depression or anxiety, should be eligible for assisted suicide.
58% of respondents did not believe that people with physical disabilities should be eligible to end their lives by assisted suicide, while 71% did not believe that individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities should be eligible for assisted suicide.
Respondents also overwhelmingly believe that other potentially vulnerable groups of people should not be eligible for assisted suicide, including homeless people (81%), pregnant women (87%), people with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa (82%), individuals expressing suicidal thoughts during an acute crisis (82%), and people suffering from continual poverty (82%).
Additionally, 72% of respondents stated that it is more important to strictly define who is eligible for assisted dying/suicide, even if this means taking longer to pass the Bill.
The public believes that an assisted suicide Bill should be much stricter than that currently proposed
Respondents were also asked to imagine a bill to legalise doctors assisting people who are terminally ill to end their own lives in the UK, and state which eligibility criteria should be required.
70% of respondents believe that an individual should have to be terminally ill, while 78% of respondents believe that an individual should have been offered other options like hospice or palliative care.
70% of respondents believe that an individual should be experiencing unbearable suffering to be eligible for assisted suicide – something which is not the case in Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.
69% of respondents also believe that family members and/or next of kin should have the right to be told about a family member’s request to have a doctor help end their life, while 73% of respondents stated that only the patient should be able to raise the option of receiving help to end their life.
72% of respondents also believe that coroners should be involved with investigating all assisted suicide deaths, just as they do with investigating all unusual deaths currently.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “The revelations brought to light following the results of this polling have proven just how far Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill strays from what the public perceives it to be, and what they would expect an assisted suicide Bill to entail”.
“Many groups of people would be eligible for assisted suicide under the loose criteria in Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill – groups of people who the public do not wish to be eligible, as revealed by this polling”.
“The public has also made it clear that a Private Members’ Bill is not the vehicle for an assisted suicide Bill, and the only way to ensure that all the safeguards that such a huge change in the law and the health service would necessitate is by such legislation being brought by the Government”.
“MPs who, in the next Parliamentary session, may be tempted to bring forward the assisted suicide Bill with the aim of driving it through without scrutiny using the Parliament Acts should be certain that the public, even those who support the principle of assisted suicide, do not want this”.
