Supporters of the assisted dying bill are planning to enlist some 200 MPs to attempt to bring it back into contention this summer.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is currently set to fail when parliament ends its current session ahead of the King’s Speech on 13 May.
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It needs to complete its parliamentary stages before then but has become stuck in the House of Lords.
The bill would give people over 18 who are terminally ill and in the final six months of their life the ability to request assistance from a doctor to die.
It only covers England and Wales. MSPs rejected a Scottish version on 17 March, while Jersey and the Isle of Man recently passed their own laws.
The bill was proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who in September 2024 came first in a ballot of backbench MPs to bring forward their own draft laws. This ballot happens in each parliamentary session.
So how could it return?
Backers of the bill have told Sky News they think around 200 MPs would be willing to reintroduce the bill should they come in the top few places in the next ballot, due on 21 May.
“The strategy is to come high up in the private members bill ballot,” Charlie Falconer, the Labour peer who has been shepherding the bill through the Lords, told Sky News.
Government ministers aren’t allowed to put in for the ballot – between 400 and 500 backbench MPs usually enter. If 500 do, a supporter has a 92% chance of coming in the top five places needed to have a realistic chance of progressing.
“The idea is we all support that…
