Day two of Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill has finished, and so we wanted to update you on what happened.
In a significant win for opponents of the assisted suicide Bill, the House of Lords has approved the establishment of a dedicated select committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals, with the commencement of the Bill’s formal Committee Stage being delayed until the select committee has reported.
Last week, Baroness Berger tabled an amendment that delayed the commencement of the Bill’s Committee Stage until a select committee had reported. This was branded by supporters of the Bill as a “wrecking amendment” and dismissed by the Bill’s lead House of Lords sponsor, Lord Falconer, as not “workable”.
On Wednesday, in a significant U-turn, Lord Falconer made a major concession, agreeing that he would now back a new amendment tabled by Baroness Berger that would, in fact, still delay the commencement of the Bill’s Committee Stage until a select committee had reported.
This has been called a “significant win” for opponents of the Bill by Politico Playbook. Commentators have said this clearly showed that Falconer and supporters did not have the numbers to vote down the amendment, and so conceded.
STRONG MAJORITY SPEAK IN OPPOSITION
If you managed to watch the debate today, as with day one last Friday, you will have seen there were many really strong speeches from Peers opposing the Bill, and a majority of those who spoke opposed the Bill.
Our Public Affairs team have just completed their analysis of the speeches across both days one and two of Second Reading – of the 155 peers who took a position on the Bill, 104 (67%) spoke in opposition and 51 (33%) spoke in favour.
More than double the number of Peers spoke in opposition to the Bill compared with those who supported it, providing further evidence that the House of Lords is likely to be significantly more opposed than supportive of the Bill.
One high-profile member of the House of Lords who was not present today was pro-life veteran Lord Alton of Liverpool.
As you may have heard, Lord Alton was involved in the recent London bus crash in Victoria, where he suffered spinal injuries. He is recovering well after receiving excellent medical care, but, unfortunately, his injuries meant that he was not able to speak in the debate today.
In place of being able to give a speech, he recorded a video of the speech he would have given at Second Reading, which has already been viewed over 70,000 times on our X account – you can view it too here. The Critic has also published the transcript of the speech in full here.
THANK YOU
Thank you to the 104 Peers who have spoken in opposition to the Bill across the two days of Second Reading.
Today, there were speeches from a number of high-profile peers, including Baroness Finlay (former BMA President), Baroness Hollins (former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists), Baroness Coffey (former Deputy Prime Minister), Lord Frost and Lord Moore.
For those of you who missed the debate, you can view a highlights thread that we have just put up of videos of the best speeches from our live coverage on X. You can view that by clicking here.
Thank you again to everyone who has already written to Peers urging them to oppose the Bill. Every email and letter makes a difference – and will have played a part in encouraging so many Peers to attend and speak out against this dangerous assisted suicide Bill across the two days of Second Reading.
If you would like to read more about the debate today, our press release has further information. You can access it by clicking here.
Thank you again for all your help with this great start to the House of Lords battle on the assisted suicide Bill across these two Fridays.
The Bill will now move on to the dedicated select committee, which will further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals.