UK MPs reject assisted dying bill for England and Wales

Leadbeater signals another attempt could come next year

The UK House of Commons voted 270 to 286 on Friday to reject a bill that would have legalized assisted dying in England and Wales, ending the latest parliamentary effort to change the law. The vote marked a reversal from June, when MPs had backed the same legislation 315 to 291 at an earlier stage.

The defeat leaves assisted dying in England and Wales in its current legal status, with supporters promising another attempt as soon as next year. One of those behind the bill said the result does not mean parliament lacks a majority for the principle of assisted dying.

BBC political correspondent Harry Farley, reporting from Westminster, attributed the shift in votes primarily to turnout rather than to changes in MPs’ positions. “We always said it would come to turnout and it did,” one supporter of the bill texted Farley. An opponent messaged to say the same.

The vote tallies showed the opposition held roughly steady — 286 against on Friday compared with 291 against in June — while support fell from 315 to 270.

Farley reported that MPs who changed their minds represented a small minority. One who did switch was Labour MP Janet Daby, who represents Lewisham East. Addressing the Commons, Daby said that after previously backing the bill, “my conscience was not at peace, and I cannot again, in good conscience, vote for the bill.”

Farley wrote that the influence of Andy Burnham may have been a factor in MPs’ decisions. When MPs last voted on assisted dying, Sir Keir Starmer was prime minister and supportive of the bill. Burnham is not. For Labour MPs wanting to follow Downing Street’s priorities, Farley wrote, “abstaining might have seemed a more appealing option.”

Farley also cited a wedding that took some MPs away from Westminster and a trip to Ukraine that kept others from the vote as reasons for the lower turnout among supporters.

Bill sponsor Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who introduced the legislation, told the BBC another attempt to pass assisted dying legislation could come as soon as next year. Supporters told Farley they view the current parliament, with its large proportion of Labour MPs who tend to support assisted dying, as a “unique moment” to pass such legislation.

Farley reported that bitterness from supporters was directed in part at the House of Lords, where opponents’ efforts ultimately led to the bill’s defeat. He wrote that the outcome could accelerate calls among MPs for reform of Parliament’s second chamber.

Since a 2024 debate on a similar bill — the first time MPs had considered assisted dying in nine years — the Commons had voted on the issue three times. The June vote, in which 315 MPs backed the bill and 291 opposed it, was the most recent before today’s defeat. Farley noted that the tone of debate had shifted from the “sombre, respectful” register of 2024 to something more embittered across the three Commons votes and hours of debate.

The result, Farley wrote, was welcomed by those who worry such a change would risk harming vulnerable people and came as a bitter disappointment to those who view legalization as a compassionate alternative to the current legal framework.