Lauren Edwards intends to revive the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, straining internal party unity as Labour MPs voice concerns over prioritising a divisive issue over national priorities like the NHS and cost of living.
Labour MPs have mounted a backlash against one of their own after she committed to reviving a controversial Bill to legalise assisted dying . Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, has announced she will reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament .
The Bill, previously brought to Parliament in 2024, passed two votes in the House of Commons but fell in the House of Lords after peers ran out of time to conclude their debate before the end of the previous parliamentary session in April. Ms Edwards will reintroduce it on Wednesday having come second in the ballot of MPs seeking to pass laws through Private Members' Bills.
She also threatened to use rarely used powers under the Parliament Act to force it through if the Lords blocks it again. Yet her efforts to push through assisted dying legislation in the new parliamentary session have been heavily criticised by other Labour MPs, amid their concerns about more time and political capital being expended on such a controversial issue. Adam Jogee, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, said it was 'insane' to bring back the 'deeply divisive and flawed Bill'.
Another Labour MP who is opposed to the Bill said: 'The Labour Party needs the return of the assisted dying bill like we need a hole in the head.
' Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, announced she will reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament The Bill, previously brought to Parliament by Labour's Kim Leadbeater (centre) in 2024, passed two votes in the House of Commons Former health minister Ashley Dalton, the Labour MP for West Lancashire who has terminal cancer, said: 'I'm deeply concerned that supporters are bringing the assisted dying Bill back. 'Voters put us in power to reduce the cost of living and fix the NHS.
We have debated this deeply divisive and flawed assisted dying Bill for over a year and supporters have refused to listen or to make the necessary changes.
'This Bill would hand sweeping unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments, whatever their political persuasion. 'We should not be using more of our limited time and political capital on something that simply isn't safe or a priority for the people who put us in power. ' Emma Lewell, the Labour MP for South Shields, said she was 'absolutely dismayed' that the Bill is being re-introduced.
'Not a single one of our major medical or professional bodies support it,' she added. 'A deeply flawed and dangerous Bill that poses a real risk to the most vulnerable in our society. ' David Smith, the Labour MP for North Northumberland, said: 'To bring assisted dying back now after it has so recently failed lacks wisdom. 'It will only deepen division and distract the Government from far bigger priorities.
' Meanwhile, other critics of assisted dying legislation have highlighted how Ms Edwards previously had to apologise for a series of offensive tweets - including an ableist slur that upset disability campaigners - she posted more than a decade ago resurfaced. Assisted dying legislation is fiercely opposed by a number of disability and learning disability groups.
Shortly after being elected to Parliament in July 2024, Ms Edwards said of her past posts: 'They were a significant error of judgement on my part, and I apologise wholeheartedly.
' Earlier this year, peers faced allegations of filibustering the assisted dying Bill after more than 1,200 amendments were put forward in the Lords, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers. But opponents of the Bill, which proposed setting up a framework for assisted dying in England and Wales and was first introduced to Parliament by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, branded it an 'unsafe' piece of legislation.
Ms Edwards said: 'This long overdue change to the law was supported by MPs during the last session of Parliament and was prevented from passing only by the decision of a minority in the House of Lords to talk it out and stop it coming to a vote.
'I believe it is a fundamental democratic principle that the elected chamber, the House of Commons, should decide what does and does not become law in this country. 'We owe it to all those terminally ill people and their families who are depending on this Bill to ensure that Parliament can come to a final decision on the question of choice at the end of life.
'And I believe it undermines public trust in our democracy more widely if we cannot deliver on a measure that is supported by a very large majority of voters in all parts of the country. ' She said MPs 'did not take our decision lightly and, as the elected chamber, we had a right to expect that decision to be respected by the Lords, whose job it is to revise legislation not to block it
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