If you managed to watch day one of Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill, 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 completed an analysis of the speeches immediately after the debate ended for a number of journalists who were looking to report on the breakdown – of the 86 peers who took a position on the Bill in their speeches, 58 (67%) spoke in opposition to the Bill and 28 (33%) spoke in favour.
This shows that more than double the number of Peers spoke in opposition to the Bill compared with those who supported it.
This is in stark contrast to Second Reading in the House of Commons, where a majority of MPs spoke in favour of the Bill (25 spoke in favour, 21 spoke in opposition).
This is an incredible result that indicates that the House of Lords is likely to be significantly more opposed than supportive of the Bill.
THANK YOU
First, thank you to the 58 Peers who spoke in opposition to the Bill – and for the really powerful speeches you gave.
For those of you who missed the debate, the former Prime Minister, Baroness May, gave a very strong speech, cutting through the spin from the assisted suicide lobby to declare: “Suicide is wrong, but this Bill effectively says suicide is ok… It should not pass”.
You can view her speech by clicking here – and if you scroll down the thread, we have included a number of the other speeches from our live coverage of the Bill on X.
Thank you also to the thousands of people around the country who have written to Peers asking 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.
In the debate, many Peers specifically made a point in their speeches of thanking those who had written to them about this Bill.
If you haven’t sent your letters yet, click here to access our EasyAction tool that makes it incredibly simple for you to send a physical letter to a Peer now. If you don’t have access to a printer or someone who is happy to print the letters for you, another option is to copy the letter out by hand. While it may take a bit more time than sending an email, as the Peers mentioned, letters make a real difference!
Finally, if you want to read more about the debate, 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.
Day two of Second Reading is next Friday (19 September).