Rhoda Grant, a former Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), has called for Labour Party MPs to unite in voting down Lauren Edwards’ assisted suicide Bill, rather than reopen and deepen yet more divisions under the new Prime Minister.
Writing in The Times newspaper, Scotland edition, Grant said that the issue of assisted suicide “has already exposed profound divisions within Labour, which will deepen if this debate drags on for another year” following the reintroduction of the assisted suicide Bill by Lauren Edwards, in addition to widening the divisions between the Labour Party in England and Scotland.
Edwards published her assisted suicide Bill in near-identical form to the much-criticised Leadbeater Bill from the previous parliamentary session, retaining dozens of serious flaws identified by Royal Colleges, professional bodies, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and disability, mental health and domestic abuse charities.
Grant said that this deeply divisive Bill would “upend, rather than foster, unity”, making it more difficult for the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, to achieve his goal of eradicating infighting within the Labour Party.
She added that, in Scotland, Labour MSPs rejected the assisted suicide Bill in the last Scottish Parliament because it did not align with Labour values, namely “equality for all and care for the vulnerable”. The McArthur Bill in Scotland was defeated in March 2026 by 69 votes to 57, with the Deputy Political Editor of The Scotsman, David Bol, describing the vote as “potentially the biggest decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament”. 85% of Scottish Labour MSPs opposed it.
After Edwards announced she would bring the Bill back, several Labour MPs took to social media to point out that bringing back the assisted suicide Bill would fuel the flames of current tensions in the Labour Party, causing further division, at the worst possible time. These MPs include Adam Jogee, David Smith, Rupa Huq and Kirsteen Sullivan. Other MPs, including Ashley Dalton, Emma Lewell, Antonia Bance, Allison Gardner, Daniel Francis, Uma Kumaran, Ian Byrne, Scott Arthur and Andrew Pakes, alongside Labour Peers and former MPs Luciana Berger and Barbara Keeley, all also expressed serious concern about the return of the Bill.
Still more Labour MPs reposted the concerns of their colleagues, including Chi Onwurah, Jess Asato, Mary Glindon, Melanie Ward and Patrick Hurley, as well as former Labour rebel Karl Turner, who predicted defeat for a new Bill, making the division this Bill will cause pointless. Former Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Rosie Duffield also publicly opposed the return of the Bill.
Grant argued that it was intentional that Edwards’ assisted suicide Bill is almost identical to the previous failed assisted suicide Bill, saying that “[l]ittle has been done to amend the significant flaws”, as this means that its supporters could use the Parliament Acts to force it onto the statute books if it fails once more in the House of Lords.
Grant encouraged MPs to be united, rather than divided, reminding them that it would be “better to vote down this divisive bill and let the issue, now twice defeated, rest in peace”.
Grant has previously said that assisted suicide is at odds with Labour values
Grant was an MSP during the recent failed attempt to make assisted suicide legal in Scotland andt explained that she and her Labour Party colleagues in Scotland voted to reject the assisted suicide Bill precisely because of their progressive and left-wing convictions.
She argued that the “Bill risks fuelling tensions within the Labour Party at a particularly sensitive political moment”, adding that the debate in Westminster is caricatured as “compassionate progressives” versus “socially conservative opponents”.
In Scotland, however, Grant said that opposition to the assisted suicide Bill came from Labour values of “solidarity, equality, disability rights, and the protection of vulnerable people”.
Grant argues that the Labour movement was built on the belief that people are not truly free “when crushed by poverty, insecurity, isolation or structural disadvantage”, adding that legalising assisted suicide “risks undermining that principle”.
According to Grant, Scotland’s Labour MSPs concluded that assisted suicide sat “uneasily, even irreconcilably, beside the founding values of the welfare state”. She urged MPs in Westminster to follow their lead and support laws that promote “life and hope rather than death and despair”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is heartening to hear Rhoda Grant call on Labour MPs to reject assisted suicide, which her colleagues in Scotland overwhelmingly did in March”.
“Labour MPs should take heed of the advice Grant gives them, and should help restore unity within the Party by voting against the flawed, divisive assisted suicide Bill at Second Reading”.
