If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. After her Private Members’ Bill to enact Assisted Dying fell in the House of Lords, the ever-enthusiastic Kim Leadbeater is now gearing up for another push. In a letter to colleagues, the Honourable Member for Batley has begged fellow MPs to offer their support for her legislation by entering the forthcoming Private Members’ Bill ballot on Thursday. If their number gets called then they can choose to back Leadbeater’s initiative. Talk about the ironies of Leadbeater appealing for her Bill to be given life support…
Leadbeater writes that the ballot is the best ‘simplest way’ for parliament to ‘complete consideration of the legislation’. She tells MPs that:
If the same Bill is reintroduced in the Commons, it will allow the Lords to resume their task of revising and amending the Bill from where proceedings ended last session, but a small minority of opponents in the upper House will not be able to block progress in the same way again…. Many colleagues in the House of Lords are deeply disappointed that they were not given an opportunity to vote on this Bill. I am enclosing a letter signed by more than 200 peers urging Parliament to ensure this issue can come to a conclusion as soon as possible… I am sure you will agree, it is extremely important for trust in our democracy that Parliament is able to reach a conclusion on this issue. I hope colleagues who share that view will consider putting their names into the ballot and help complete the task we began on September 2024.
The letter in question is backed by the likes of Establishment grandees Baroness Harman, Lord Clarke and Lord Turnbull. Let’s see if Kim fares any better at the second time of trying, eh?
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