Lauren Edwards MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  They were dropped in favour of a stronger safeguard, which was a multidisciplinary panel of people with different perspectives who were trained in spotting coercion—a psychiatrist, a legal expert and a social worker, bringing other people in with different perspectives—to ensure that the person taking the assisted death decision was doing so in an informed and settled way, free from coercion. That was a strengthening of the Bill, not a weakening.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Government have been clear, as the Government of the previous Prime Minister were, that they remain neutral on assisted dying, but that they have responsibilities to make sure that the legislation we bring forward is workable. We received those assurances on Third Reading of the previous Bill, when we voted in favour of it as a Chamber.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. It is a privilege to open this debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill—a Bill that will give dying adults, under very stringent criteria, choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives. What is being asked of MPs today? It is a fair question, given that this House already voted to send the near identical Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) back to the House of Lords in June last year. On Second Reading, we vote on the principle of a Bill, but we did that in November 2024. It is a broader principle that the House must consider today: who ultimately decides the laws that govern our nation? Many Members would no doubt prefer to be working in their constituencies today. They are not because a small number of peers in the other place chose to prevent any votes from taking place on the substance of the Bill in the last Session.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Members should be in no doubt that the Bill we sent the Lords last year was robust.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I will make some progress. If, at that point, Members of this House decide to vote the Bill down, I and many others, in this Chamber and outside, would be upset and disappointed, but I would accept that as a result of the proper democratic processes being followed. What I cannot accept, and what many people both inside and outside the Chamber cannot accept, is the current situation, where a small number of unelected peers filibustered legislation that was supported by this Chamber. That is not how our democracy is supposed to function.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I am sorry; I will make some progress. It is my fervent wish that all the peers in the House of Lords will accept that important distinction between their Chamber and ours, and fulfil their role in the usual way. In doing so, they can consider and send an amended Bill back to us for a final vote before Royal Assent.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  There were a number of amendments around points of clarification—some external organisations wanted some words made a little clearer, although they seem robust to me—that I certainly believe could be made in the House of Lords.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I would point out that there is a range of views among those in the palliative care community. It is specifically for that reason that the Bill allows them not to be involved in the process if they do not wish to be.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  We have been through that process. There was a Committee that had hundreds of hours of scrutiny and properly kicked the tyres on the robustness of this legislation. What we need to do as a House is send the Bill back to the House of Lords so that they can finish their job. We did ours.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Obviously, Members have previously raised concerns about doctors getting their prognosis wrong when it comes to how long someone is able to live. My understanding is that, given the international evidence, six months was seen a reasonable line to draw, because as the time of death gets closer, the accuracy of the diagnosis is increased.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not give way. I am asking Members today to start the process of sending this Bill back to the House of Lords, so that they can continue their important function of fulfilling their constitutional role.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will once I have concluded my opening remarks. That decision by those peers means that one of the most significant national conversations that we have been having as legislators was brought to an abrupt halt. Who suffers detriment as a result? Clearly, the terminally ill and their families, who had a fair assumption that the will of the people they elected to represent them in this Chamber would be respected, but also those who must navigate our current, unclear laws. They are laws that do not protect or guide those who work in our health system, laws that do not contain safeguards against the risks of coercion, laws that criminalise and traumatise families who simply want to be with their loved one at the moment of their death, and laws that four Directors of Public Prosecutions have urged need to change. If we do not vote today to allow this Bill to continue its passage through Parliament, we accept those outcomes as the cost of maintaining the status quo, and who knows how long it will be before we get the opportunity to consider the introduction of assisted dying laws again, despite consistent polling showing that it receives majority public support?

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  It is absolutely right that, for instance, the Prime Minister and the Government have said that improving palliative care must be a priority—I think that is something we can all support. Everybody should have access to good-quality palliative, hospice and end-of-life care in their final moments.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am going to make a little bit of progress. The four-year implementation period means that nobody would be receiving assisted dying until 2031 at the earliest. That would be too late for many people, but it would be plenty of time to make improvements to palliative care, which would go hand in hand with providing the choice of an assisted death for those who still need it. We can, and should, do both.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier).

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I will make a little bit more progress, please. Although the Government are neutral on the issue of assisted dying—then, as now—they have a duty to ensure that any legislation that Parliament passes is effective, legally robust and workable. I am confident in saying to this House that the Bill before us today is a well-designed, safe piece of legislation.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No. The Bill was expertly drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and developed with comprehensive technical advice from officials in both the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  As has been mentioned, the Bill has been subject to hundreds of hours of scrutiny, and amendments have been made to strengthen its safeguards, but that does not mean it cannot be strengthened further. As with any Bill, it will benefit from additional scrutiny. The Bill before us today already includes an important clarification on eating disorders that was agreed without a vote in the House of Lords last time. Together with the co-sponsor of the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Falconer, who is in the Gallery today, I have recently met representatives from medical bodies and hospice organisations to discuss further amendments that could be made in the other place.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I think we need to be very careful when we are quoting polling. For instance, we know that Whitestone Insight has been criticised heavily by the British Polling Council in recent weeks for failing to meet its standards in terms of disclosing who has been funding its research. The reference I am making in my speech is to those very robust, independent polls, such as the British attitudes survey, which in 2024 found that 73% of the British public supported assisted dying and have done so over the last 20 years.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am sorry, but I will not give way. I thank all those who took part in the debate on the Bill in this Chamber during the last parliamentary Session. We showed politics at its best through our robust but courteous debates. We did our job, and we did it well; now it is time for us to send this assisted dying Bill back to the House of Lords, so that it can finish what it started. Whatever our respective views on the form and composition of the second Chamber, I hope we can agree that peers play an important role in scrutinising, refining and strengthening the legislation that we send there.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. As acknowledged by organisations that provide that care, though, their services cannot address pain and suffering in all circumstances. During the passage of the Bill in the last parliamentary Session, we heard examples of the limits of palliative care from Members with medical expertise themselves.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  That is a part of our usual parliamentary process and the hon. Lady is right to raise that point. By sending the Bill back to the Lords as it stands, we will prevent that same small group of peers who talked it out last time from doing the same thing again. It is my fervent wish that all the peers—

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I am sorry. I end with the words of Elise Burns, who, like me, called Kent home, and who sadly died in July with secondary cancer of the lungs, liver and bones. She said she would love peers “to look me in the eye and tell me why me and my friends, and anyone with terminal illness, don’t deserve to die with dignity and to have the choice to die…without pain.” We owe it to terminally ill people like Elise, who are relying on us and who were so filled with hope when we voted in favour last time. Quite rightly, they cannot understand how, having secured the support of the people they elected to represent them, the issue that is so important to them has been frustrated by a small group of people with no democratic mandate. The important conversation that we have been having on assisted dying, as legislators and as a society, has been interrupted. To leave it so would have a profoundly negative impact on people’s trust in our political system. If we fail to support the Bill’s Second Reading, are we not saying that it is fine for a minority of unelected peers to defy the will of the House of Commons? Are we really prepared to cede that point and accept the consequences not only for this vital legislation but for future legislation too? I ask hon. Members to join me in sending a clear message that the will of this Chamber should be respected, on behalf of all the people that we represent, and to support this Bill on Second Reading.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  The position that I take is that we can, and must, both improve palliative care and support assisted dying. We must grasp the opportunity that is in front of us to create a holistic end-of-life care system that will deliver choice and dignity for every single one of our constituents.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I will make some progress. Taking the approach I have outlined respects both the will of this House, as expressed in June 2025, and allows the usual parliamentary processes to continue.