House of Lords plot to halt assisted dying invoice uncovered | Politics | News | EUROtoday

A backer of assisted dying has warned the Bill is prone to failing within the House of Lords if extra time shouldn’t be given. Labour former lord chancellor and justice secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton tabled a movement forward of the draft laws returning to the higher chamber at present to request “further time”.

The Bill will turn out to be regulation provided that the House of Commons and the Lords agree on the ultimate drafting, with approval wanted earlier than spring when the present session of Parliament ends. But greater than 1,000 amendments have been tabled by friends because the clock ticks down on the controversial laws.

Pressing for extra time, Lord Falconer stated: “The assisted dying Bill commands strong views, both in favour and against, and is of huge public interest in terms of not only its content, but also its progress through our Parliament, not least how we in this House conduct our scrutiny of it.”

He added: “If we continue at the rate we are going, this House will fail to complete the process of scrutiny.

“We will attain no conclusions on the Bill as to the way it must be amended or whether or not it ought to return to the Commons. Instead, the Bill will fail via lack of time.”

He went on: “We shouldn’t enable our justified popularity for high-quality scrutiny to be tarnished by the best way we failed to achieve conclusions on the Bill.”

The call for extra time to consider the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was backed by peers.

Following the decision, the chief whip in the Lords, Lord Kennedy of Southwark, pointed out that as the Government was neutral on the legislation he could not give any firm commitments on what would happen next.

But the Labour frontbencher said he would look to hold “pressing discussions” early next week “to hunt to discover a method ahead to ship on what the House has simply agreed”, although he made clear it would not be in Government time.

Friday sittings to debate the Bill so far have generally begun after 10am and finished by around 3pm.

There are 10 sessions listed for the Bill in the Lords between Friday and April 24.

Supporters of assisted dying have accused some opponents in the Lords of filibustering and trying to “speak out” the proposed law.

But opponents have insisted they are simply doing their job of scrutinising a Bill, which they argue is not safe in its current form and needs to be strengthened.

Assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, who has repeatedly urged members of the Lords not to block the landmark legislation, warned last month that “scrutiny should not tip into sabotage”.

The Bill was narrowly accredited at third studying by MPs within the Commons in June final 12 months, and obtained an unopposed second studying within the Lords in September earlier than continuing to committee stage.