The parliamentarians behind the assisted dying bill have been warned against triggering a rarely used law to override the House of Lords and force the bill into law. The Christian Institute said such a move would be a “bullying tactic”.
Tensions among assisted dying campaigners and members of both chambers have been mounting, with peers being accused of “filibuster tactics” to delay the bill. The bill is currently at committee stage in the Lords where a significant number of amendments have yet to be debated.
The bill’s sponsors, Kim Leadbeater MP and Lord Falconer, are worried. Lord Falconer said unless there was “a fundamental change in approach”, the bill will not pass during this parliament.
They have urged using the Parliament Act 2011 to override the Lords. The move has been seen by opponents as an attempt to undermine the longstanding and crucial role of the Lords in scrutinising legislation.
The provisions under the Parliament Act have only been used seven times since 2011. According to the independent Hansard Society, a bill must have been delayed by the Lords for at least 13 months (across two sessions) for the Parliament Act procedures to be invoked.
Simon Calvert, deputy director at the Christian Institute, said: “Proponents of assisted suicide are just mad at the House of Lords for doing its job, which is scrutinising legislation. If the bill had been better drafted it wouldn’t have needed 1,200 amendments.
“This is literally a life and death issue. We can’t play silly games. This is a bill that barely scraped through the House of Commons where, despite the other side’s best efforts to limit scrutiny, the more MPs saw of it the less they supported it.”
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