I was elected to Westminster two years ago, when the country was crying out for change and looking to parliament to tackle the big issues that had been forgotten for too long. When that change didn’t come fast enough, trust in politics once again started to ebb away. We have one last chance to prove we can deliver on people’s priorities.
Assisted dying didn’t feature in the manifesto I was elected on. Nor should it have done. Matters of conscience such as this are rightly left to individual MPs to decide upon. There will always be a range of views within all political parties. But this issue has been supported by a substantial majority in the country for a very long time. Reputable independent polling has shown support for assisted dying consistently at about 75%. The latest British social attitudes survey from the National Centre for Social Research found that “it is clear we are observing a continued high level of public support for legal change to allow assisted dying in some circumstances”.
Having examined the issue with great care, MPs decided in the last session to support the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill. On the Labour benches there was a clear majority in favour, as there was on the Lib Dems’. The Greens supported it unanimously. It is the most pressing, progressive reform of this parliament. But it was blocked in the Lords earlier this year by a small minority of peers, led in part by ex-Tory ministers such as Thérèse Coffey and Mark Harper.
On Friday, I will be asking MPs to send the bill back to the Lords. There they can amend the bill if they choose, just like any legislation, and if the Commons agrees, that’s fine. But they should not be allowed to frustrate the will of the elected chamber a second time.
I am not reopening divisions in the Labour party or in parliament, as some have claimed. Exactly the reverse is true. MPs have already made their decision. In a democracy, we settle our differences by voting on them. Last time, opponents in the Lords prevented a vote taking place on the bill’s provisions.
The voters put us here to tackle the big issues they care about, not to constantly kick them down the road. After a shaky start, this parliament has the chance to show that it can deliver; that we won’t shirk our responsibilities and will start to restore the public’s faith in our democratic system.
Other major social changes such as a woman’s right to choose and gay rights were bitterly contested at the time. But once passed, the reforms were quickly accepted and ceased to be controversial. It is time to do the same and give terminally ill people the choice to exercise some control over the manner of their deaths. We owe it to them, and to the vast majority of voters who support them, not to sit back and allow a minority of unelected peers to stand in their way.
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