There was a markedly different feel to today’s debate on Assisted Dying. The last time the House debated Kim Leadbeater’s Bill at the end of November, there was plenty of pep and self-congratulation among the speeches. But today, it was a decidedly more bad-tempered affair, as MPs met for the first day on the Bill’s report stage, ahead of its Third Reading in a month’s time.
There are four obvious reasons why today saw a shift in the mood of the House. The first was the chop-and-change of the Bill’s safeguards during committee stage, with roughly 150 changes since the last vote. Labour’s Florence Eshalomi gave one of the most powerful speeches, declaring she was ‘even more worried now’ about the Bill than before, citing coercion fears. Rebecca Paul, a Tory, claimed there had been a ‘massive shift’ in the Bill’s emphasis from ‘pain’ to ‘choice and autonomy.’
The second reason was Esther Rantzen’s last-minute letter, published last night, accusing some MPs of being influenced by ‘undeclared personal religious beliefs.’
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