Doubt has been cast over the legislation for assisted dying as a poll suggested most MPs would vote against it.
Since the Bill allowing state support for terminally ill people to end their own lives passed its first hurdle in the Commons last year, concerns have been raised as proposed safeguards were rejected by its architect, Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater.
Many MPs backed it initially only because of the requirement that a High Court judge would have to sign off applications – but this was scrapped in favour of an expert panel.
Now a survey of MPs has for the first time suggested that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will be voted down when it returns to the Commons this month.
The poll of 104 MPs by Whitestone Insight, commissioned by anti-assisted suicide campaign group Care Not Killing, found that 42 planned to vote against it and five said they would abstain.
MP Kim Leadbeater at a press conference at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, to discuss the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
A protester outside the Houses of Parliament in London calling for reform as peers debate the new assisted dying legislation
Only 36 intended to back the Bill, while 13 were undecided and another eight declined to answer.
And only 30 agreed that replacing High Court oversight with a panel gave them more confidence in the Bill, while 41 disagreed.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said: ‘This bombshell poll confirms that the more MPs hear about assisted suicide and what it entails, the less likely they are to support changing the law.’
He added MPs clearly recognised removing the High Court from the process ‘makes the Bill much less safe’ and that it ‘would put the lives of vulnerable people at risk’ if it passed.
