| After months of high emotion, MPs will meet today to debate the changes made to the bill by its scrutiny committee and whether further amendments are needed. When they do vote it will be a free one, with MPs being asked to use their conscience – and not their loyalty to their party – when they decide to support or oppose the bill. Should it pass, the bill will progress to the House of Lords. What is the timetable going forward? Between January and March, a committee of MPs appointed by Kim Leadbeater met 29 times to consider the bill, hearing evidence from 50 expert witnesses and receiving hundreds of written submissions from the public. At the end of this nine-week committee stage, multiple amendments were proposed. The bill had been due to face another yes-or-no vote today, but the Commons speaker, Linsday Hoyle, granted more time for the debate, meaning the only votes today will be on specific amendments that came out of the committee stage. A second day of debate is scheduled for the 13 June, which is the earliest a crunch vote could take place. If needed, a third session would be scheduled for 20 June before the vote on the final bill. How much has changed since the last vote? There have already been major changes made to the bill since MPs voted in November. As reported by Jessica in a Guardian exclusive, the role of a high court judge in approving assisted dying cases has been replaced by a panel of experts, including two doctors, a lawyer, a social worker and a psychiatrist. “It was deemed that it just wasn’t feasible,” says Jessica. “But if there was a change designed to make MPs feel nervous, this is it, because the idea of a high court judge being involved was very reassuring to many.” Another major change in the bill made since the last vote – and one that Leadbeater reportedly only agreed to under pressure – is an extension of the deadline for implementing any future assisted dying law from two years to four in order for the government, the NHS and other involved parties to guarantee they had the capacity to carry out their responsibilities safely. What are some of the most contentious issues that could be debated today? Since the last vote, the bill has become a lightning rod for deeply divisive and complex moral, political and religious issues. Jessica says that, going into today, there are still a huge range of issues where people have grave concerns and where opinion among MPs – and also campaigning and medical groups – is deeply divided. Among the votes today will be amendments intended to tighten up the bill, for example adding a further check on applications for assisted dying, and ensuring doctors and others are able to opt out of involvement in the process. Jessica says another topic that might get traction today is a call for a clause to prevent assisted dying being used in cases of eating disorders, “which, in some cases of extreme anorexia, might be considered terminal at points but which the patient could theoretically recover from,” says Jessica. She says she also expects the concerns of disability charities – backed by disabled parliamentarians like MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy and peer Tanni Grey-Thompson – to be raised. One thorn in the side of Leadbeater’s supporters will be the recent opposition to the bill in its current form from the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych). This is significant because under the bill’s current stipulations a psychiatrist would need to be on a panel overseeing assisted dying cases and this point has been seized on by opponents, who have described the RCPsych’s intervention as a “blow to [the] foundations” of the bill. Another concern raised by some MPs is that there is still insufficient protection written into the bill for the most vulnerable, including people with mental health conditions and victims of domestic abuse. They also argue that it is reckless to introduce the option of assisted dying into a social care and health system that is already struggling, with no guarantee of significant improvements to palliative care to ensure people have a real choice. “The fact that it is happening alongside cuts to the welfare system, and at the same time as Labour says that the NHS is in really bad shape and we need to fix it, is deeply uncomfortable for a lot of Labour MPs – and even for cabinet members,” says Jessica. Are MPs switching sides? When MPs debated the bill’s second reading in November, it passed by a majority of 55 votes. This week Jessica reported that while only two MPs – Lee Anderson and his former Reform UK colleague Rupert Lowe – have openly declared that they will change their vote, at least five MPs who previously abstained will vote against it at its next stage in the commons. At least three others who voted in favour of the bill in November have said they are considering changing their vote. There are also concerns from the backers of the bill that undecided MPs may decide to return home to their constituencies instead of voting. On the other side, two other MPs have also reportedly moved to vote in favour of the bill. In the days leading up to today’s debate, there have been passionate appeals from both camps for MPs to support or oppose the bill. The broadcaster Esther Rantzen, who has stage-four lung cancer, has written an impassioned letter to MPs asking them to support the bill and allow “a good, pain-free death for ourselves and those we love and care for”. “I think Kim still has reasonably solid support,” says Jessica. “But she has to persuade MPs not to head back to their constituencies and abstain, and she has to try and keep a reasonable majority as that will give it momentum in the Lords, which will be a whole other very difficult and complicated endeavour.” What will come next? The MPs involved are facing a tough few days, says Jessica. “While almost all polling suggests the public are overwhelmingly in support of the bill, as an MP you have to think: ‘How is going to affect the most vulnerable in my constituency and what is the wider picture I need to consider for all the people I’m responsible for representing?’” Jessica says that from her own perspective as a political journalist “this bill has been hugely illuminating in terms of the unlikely alliances struck with many MPs in the new intake with party veterans. It’s been the talk of the tea rooms.” And while she expects things to be difficult for Leadbeater and her backers in the coming weeks, she still believes that ultimately the bill will pass to the next stage. “Most of these amendments have been led by Kim – some under government pressure – but she has defended them,” she says. “If you look at the maths, the bill got a 55 majority at the last vote, which is considerable, and we’d need about 20 MPs to change their mind for it to really risk failing,” she says. “But I don’t envy the decision these MPs have to make. It might be the thing of most long-term consequence this parliament does.”
| 