Assisted dying set to become law in England and Wales after bill passed by MPs

Assisted dying is set to become law after a historic vote in parliament, as MPs passed Kim Leadbeater’s bill by 314 to 291 votes, a majority of 23, to legalise the procedure for terminally ill people.

Keir Starmer backed the bill which will now head to the House of Lords, though peers are not expected to block its progress.

It will give those with less than six months to live in England and Wales the right to an assisted death, after approval from two doctors and a panel including a psychiatrist, social worker and senior lawyer.

Opening the debate, Leadbeater said that now was the moment to seize, to “correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it”.

The Labour MP for Spen Valley said it was “not a choice between living and dying – it is a choice for terminally ill people about how they die”. She said rejecting the bill was “not a neutral act, it is a vote for the status quo … and it fills me with despair to think MPs could be here in another 10 years’ time hearing the same stories”.

Terminally ill people and families were in the public galleries watching the debate and at a rally in Parliament Square. But considerable concerns were raised by disability activists, who held a protest outside parliament, and MPs opposed to the bill made passionate pleas that it would lead to people being coerced into ending their lives early.

The former foreign secretary James Cleverly, who had opened the debate for opponents of the measure, said he was an atheist but had rejected the bill because, he said, the right safeguards were not in place.

“We were promised the gold standard, a judicially underpinned set of protections and safeguards,” he said, citing concerns from professional bodies including the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

“I disagree with [Leadbeater’s] assessment that it is now or never, and it is this bill or no bill, and that to vote against this at third reading is a vote to maintain the status quo. None of those things are true.”