Lords clash over assisted dying bill 'time wasting'

FORMER Cabinet minister said she will not be “bullied” into silence over assisted dying, after Dame Esther Rantzen warned peers not to “sabotage democracy”.

- WILL DURRANT, GEORGE THOMPSON, RHIANNON JAMES and CARLA FERIC

Baroness Therese Coffey

(Danny Lawson)

FORMER Cabinet minister said she will not be “bullied” into silence over assisted dying, after Dame Esther Rantzen warned peers not to “sabotage democracy”.

Baroness Therese Coffey has tabled more than 60 amendments to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, and indicated she was using the parliamentary process to raise her “concerns”.

Peers clashed yesterday over the length of time it was taking to see the draft new law through the Lords.

They are in the process of debating more than 1,000 amendments, during the Bill’s committee stage.

The proposed legislation applies to Wales and England, with Welsh ministers having the power to regulate it within the devolved health services.

As the House of Lords began their detailed examination of the Bill yesterday, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town suggested some of the proposed changes were tabled in a bid to wind down the clock, so the Lords would run out of time to finish their deliberations.

If this happens, assisted dying proposals - which MPs supported in a vote earlier this year - would fall.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who introduced the Bill in the Commons last year, echoed the concerns, saying some of the amendments looked designed to “try and stop the Bill passing through Parliament”.

Lady Hayter said her question was whether peers tabling amendments would support the Bill, if they could “agree on a form of wording”.