Peers clash with Rantzen over assisted dying bill

Dame Esther Rantzen has been told she does not understand how British parliamentary democracy works after she suggested that members of the House of Lords should not hold up the assisted dying legislation.

- DAVID MADDOX

Kim Leadbeater's bill passed by a narrow majority of just 23 on its third and final reading vote in the Commons on Friday, but now faces a long haul in the Lords as peers prepare to lay down hundreds of amendments.

There is a danger that the bill will get held up so much that it will not have time to pass into law, and Dame Esther hit out at peers who effectively want to use procedure to ensure it falls.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the 85-year-old TV personality who has a terminal cancer diagnosis said: "I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose.