House of Lords has ‘signed its own death warrant’ by stalling assisted dying bill, says MP

about 9 hours ago

The House of Lords “signed its own death warrant” over its stalling of the UK assisted dying bill, the MP Kim Leadbeater said as she joined more than a dozen terminally ill and bereaved people in protest outside parliament.Marking the second anniversary of the death at Dignitas of the prominent assisted dying campaigner Paola Marra, Leadbeater, whose private member’s bill for England and Wales looks set to run out of time, said many MPs, who had already voted by a majority to pass the bill, were “angry and upset” by the addition of about 1,200 amendments in the Lords, which will probably result in the bill falling without a vote.The protest, organised by the campaign group Dignity in Dying, came as the number of UK residents who had an assisted death at Dignitas rose to its second-highest level in two decades.Forty-three people travelled to Switzerland in 2025, up from 37 the previous year, and second only to 47 people in 2016, figures show.Leadbeater said of the teminally ill adults (end of life) bill: “MPs took this decision having entered into this debate in a really serious, considered manner.

They really engaged with constituents.I had colleagues in tears in my office talking this through because it is such an emotional issue, and the House of Lords are behaving as though none of that ever happened.”Welcoming the move to remove hereditary peers from the Lords, she added: “The irony of the Lords signing its own death warrant on this really important issue is not lost on me and isn’t lost on the public, many of whom are extremely angry because there is huge public support for this change in law [on assisted dying].”The Lords has just three sessions remaining to debate the bill, having discussed only half of the 1,200 amendments.Opponents of the legalisation fear it could increase pressure on some vulnerable people to take their own lives.

But Leadbeater said the bill was “extremely tightly drafted”, that the debate would continue, and that it could be brought back in the next parliamentary session if it ran out of time.Charlie Falconer, the Labour peer attempting to steer the bill through the Lords, said he was “deeply disappointed” over the way a “minority” of peers had resorted to “procedural shenanigans” to block the bill.“The issues should be debated and then we should vote on them, but that’s not what’s happened.It’s absolutely appalling.”Protesters were joined by Marra’s brother, Tony, who flew in from Canada, and held placards in memory of their loved ones, before attending Friday’s Lords session, the third to last session before the king’s speech.

They included Catie Fenner, attending in memory of her mother, Alison, who had motor neurone disease and ended her life at Dignitas in Switzerland in 2023.“I understand the need to scrutinise the bill, that is their [the Lords’] role.We absolutely support scrutiny.But we do not support sabotage, and 1,200 amendments is not scrutiny, that’s sabotage.I just feel it’s against democracy and just not the way our parliamentary process should work,” Fenner said.

Linda Deverall, whose partner, Ole Hansen, 67, was forced to travel to Belgium with terminal stomach cancer for an assisted death 14 years ago, said he had explored going to Dignitas but because of his condition he couldn’t guarantee he could swallow the medication unassisted.Like others, she said, being forced to travel meant dying earlier.“He woke up one day and said: ‘If we don’t go now, I won’t be able to go.’” Forcing people to travel alone was “barbaric”, she said.Jenny Carruthers, 58, who watched her husband “die in agony” from liver cancer, was subsequently diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, which has spread, “so I know exactly where I am going”.

Angry at the minority “blocking a law that actually makes the current law safer for people”, she said: “I feel it’s an extension of our treatment rather than a big change in the law,Most people would like to have the option, the comfort, the insurance package,”She added: “What the Lords are doing will damage democracy,”

cultureSee all

Stephen Colbert on DHS pick Markwayne Mullin: ‘Has a history of being real dumb and real angry about it’

Late-night hosts recapped Markwayne Mullin’s risible confirmation hearing for homeland security secretary and Maga’s struggles to sell the war in Iran to sticker-shocked Americans.On Wednesday’s Late Show, Stephen Colbert looked into the resignation this week of Joe Kent, Donald Trump’s director of the national counterterrorism center, in protest of the administration’s war in Iran and the fact that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation”.“So the US is going to war in the Middle East without an imminent threat to our nation … AGAIN?” Colbert joked, sitcom-style.“Now, before anybody sends this guy an Edible Arrangement in the shape of the word ‘hero’, keep in mind: he sucks,” he continued, before reminding viewers that during his failed 2022 congressional bid, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the Proud Boys, for consulting work, and worked closely with Joey Gibson, founder of the rightwing group Patriot Prayer. Kent has also blamed Israel for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq

1 day ago

Seth Meyers on Trump’s Nato about-face: ‘This is just how Donald Trump does friendship’

Late-night hosts mocked Donald Trump’s rejection by Nato allies for help with the strait of Hormuz and a White House visit from the Irish prime minister for St Patrick’s Day.On Late Night, Seth Meyers recalled the many, many times that Trump insulted Nato, only to turn around and ask them this week for help with strait of Hormuz, blocked by his war with Iran. “You called them obsolete, sloppy and bad, and now you want their help?” Meyers marveled. “It’s like breaking up with someone and then immediately asking them for help moving – ‘I know I called you obsolete and sloppy, but I didn’t say you were bad at carrying things! Now hop to it, fatso, I gotta date tonight!’”The response from Nato members has been a resounding no, even from US allies like Germany and Britain. “You mean to tell me your genius plan of continually insulting them for 10-plus years and then begging them to help you out of a jam you got yourself into didn’t work?” Meyers laughed

2 days ago

Banksy has been unmasked (again). But does this major Reuters investigation actually tell us something new?

Hi Kelly, everyone is talking about Banksy (again) – what’s he done this time?Hi Nick. So a really long (8,000-word) investigation by Reuters claims it has discovered the elusive street artist’s true identity, which backs up claims made by the Mail on Sunday British tabloid almost two decades ago that he is a 52-year-old Bristol-born man called Robin Gunningham, now going by the name of David Jones.Wait … didn’t we already know that? Or was it supposed to be the guy from Massive Attack?Sort of. Previous reports suggested that Robert Del Naja, the co-founder of Massive Attack – a pioneer in trip-hop, which is a music genre that also has its roots in Bristol – was Banksy. Now it seems that Naja is Gunningham’s secret partner/enabler/scout/gatekeeper

3 days ago

Arts Council England must change or face ‘disaster’, culture department is told

Arts Council England requires a “radical” overhaul so it can to respond to the challenges of the culture sector, according to Margaret Hodge, who said it would be a “disaster” if ACE leaders did not heed her warnings.The Labour peer, who led a wide-ranging and critical report into ACE, made the comments at a Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee, where she reiterated her calls for the organisation to embrace change.Lady Hodge said: “I think there has to be a radical review in the way that the Arts Council works; how they use the money, their role in relation to the organisations that they support, and also their role in the wider arts landscape.”She said a significant shift in approach was needed because of the “loss of confidence in how ACE serves its own communities”, caused in part by the perception of political interference in decision-making.The decision to force the English National Opera to move from London to Manchester was a “raw experience” for some of the 700 people she spoke to as part of her review, she said

3 days ago

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘He uses his bones to feel things instead of his brain’

Late-night hosts on Monday discussed the Academy Awards, Maga’s incoherent statements on the Iran war and raised an eyebrow to Donald Trump’s claims of support from an anonymous former president.On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host focused on Trump’s comments to the press in week three of the Iran war, or as Kimmel called it “Operation Epsteino Distracto”.On Truth Social, Trump wrote that it was a “great honour” to kill “scumbags” in Iran.“He’s been talking very tough for a guy who seems to almost be in a coma right now,” Kimmel said.“Even with all the killing he has been enjoying so much, he is very low energy lately,” the host continued

3 days ago

Carnivàle revisited: is this HBO’s strangest show?

Carnivàle premiered on HBO in 2003 and was cancelled after only two seasons. In the immediate aftermath, this decision was protested by the small but dedicated cult following the show had amassed (to the tune of 50,000 emails).But in the years since, as the television canon has expanded and the taste for mystery-box TV has waned, Carnivàle now seems little more than a minor curio in HBO’s ever-expanding back catalogue. So what is this curio about?Carnivàle follows the exploits of its titular carnival as they travel across the American dust bowl in the 1930s. At the beginning of the series, these nomadic showpeople pick up Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), an ex-con with a mysterious past (and inexplicable powers)

3 days ago

trendingSee all