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Campaigners have a narrow path to revive the assisted dying bill after two MPs who backed it came in the top five of the new private member’s bill ballot.
Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s original private member’s bill, which ran out of time to be passed, have the chance to use the Parliament Act to bypass the Lords if they can persuade another MP to take it through the Commons again.
The Labour MP Lauren Edwards came second and the Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George came fourth in the ballot, which was drawn on Thursday morning.
More MPs entered this year’s draw than in any other held during the last decade, with 485 in the running. Twenty were selected to present their bills, though in practice there is little chance of any MP below the top five spots having enough time to pass any bill.
George, the MP for St Ives, told the Guardian he would take some time to consider whether he would take on the assisting dying bill. MPs must present their bills by 17 June. He said the bill was “on my list as a potential but it’s a list of at least a dozen and growing”.
He said he would consult his constituents in the next fortnight before making his decision. “This is a great opportunity for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly,” he said. “That’s why I want to take a little time to listen to what constituents say before finally making my decision about which option would be best.”
George was previously a vocal critic of the delay to the bill in the Lords and he said bringing the bill back would “end for good the disgraceful abuse of entitlement by a few members of the House of Lords”. But he said he was also considering subjects including affordable housing, safe staffing by nurses and palliative care standards.
Leadbeater wrote to MPs over the last week urging supporters to allow the bill to return to the Commons. MPs who were chosen in the ballot were split down the middle in terms of support for the bill, with 10 in favour and 10 against.
The Conservative MP who came top of the ballot, Desmond Swayne, is an opponent of the bill.
Leadbeater’s version of the bill, which must be carried forward by another MP in an identical form in order for the Parliament Act to apply, would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by medical and legal professionals.
Leadbeater said: “If anything, people feel more focused on the issue because of what happened in the Lords. Even people who didn’t necessarily support the bill in the Commons – I can think of two or three particular examples – are furious at the behaviour of a small number of peers, that the bill wasn’t able to reach a conclusion. I think if anything, there’ll be more support.”
But Jess Asato, a Labour MP who opposed the bill, said it would be a distraction to bring it back. “We know the assisted dying bill is flawed and unsafe because the experts like the royal medical colleges and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have told us,” she said.
“The last thing our party should be focusing on right now is continuing to debate this deeply divisive, flawed and risky bill rather than delivering on the priorities of voters.”
