Assisted dying will not become law after MPs vote down bill in dramatic U-turn

MPs have voted down the assisted dying bill at its second reading, in a dramatic U-turn after it returned to the Commons on Friday.

In the second reading of the bill, put forward by Labour’s Lauren Edwards, MPs voted by 286 to 270 for the bill to be blocked.

It followed a number of emotional interventions from MPs across the House, with Labour MP Ashley Dalton - who has incurable metastatic breast cancer - urging colleagues to vote down the legislation.

Meanwhile, another MP, Claire Hazelgrove spoke publicly for the first time about her mother’s decision to bring her late-stage terminal illness to an end “on her terms”.

She said the “harmful status quo” meant her mother died alone in October last year, after living with a rare blood cancer for half her life.

The debate, which began at 9.37am, lasted more than four-and-a-half hours.

Ms Hazelgrove argued “not all pain can be palliated”, as she spoke in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on its return to the Commons on Friday.

The draft legislation had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

Ms Edwards, who re-introduced the Bill after it ran out of time earlier this year, had previously warned it could be another decade before the issue came before Parliament again if this legislation did not pass.