A group of Labour MPs are trying to push back a vote on the amended assisted dying bill later this month, over concerns it will clash with their final week of local election campaigning.
The bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will return to the Commons on 25 April for debate and a vote on its amendments, if time allows, before it is sent to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
The vote will come days before the local elections on 1 May, which are largely being held in rural battlegrounds where support for Labour is traditionally weaker.
The MPs pushing for a delay are opposed to assisted dying and are worried many of their colleagues will not be able to focus on campaigning in their constituencies ahead of a crucial test for Labour, after the government made a number of controversial policy decisions.
Andrew Pakes, the Labour MP for Peterborough, said the issue needed parliament’s full attention. “This is an incredibly important and sensitive issue that needs debating. The magnitude of this, given months of discussion, should have our full attention. The double whammy of it being on a Friday, and coming days before the locals will not do this matter justice,” he said.
A Labour source close to MPs concerned about the bill said: “Supporters of the bill seem to be merrily continuing their campaign for assisted dying while the rest of the Labour party are trying to tackle hard issues we face after 14 years of the Tories.
“Corralling MPs in Westminster during the short campaign for the local elections when they should be out campaigning in the first real electoral test of the Labour party since the general election feels like the last straw for many of us.”
The legislation will return to the Commons later this month after it was subject to scrutiny in the committee stage.
The Commons leader, Lucy Powell, has said there have been more than 100 amendments made to the bill since it passed its second reading in a historic Commons vote last year.
The scrutiny committee voted in favour of a multidisciplinary panel to approve assisted dying applications instead of high court judges.
New amendments impose a duty on a secretary of state in England, and give powers to ministers in Wales, to ensure voluntary assisted dying services are provided.
However, last week six Labour MPs, who oppose assisted dying, said the bill was “irredeemably flawed and not fit to become law” in a letter to their parliamentary colleagues.
The letter from two select committee chairs, Meg Hillier and Florence Eshalomi, alongside the Labour backbenchers Antonia Bance, Jess Asato, James Frith and Melanie Ward, said the promise the bill would be strengthened during the committee stage “had not been kept”.
Kim Leadbeater, the bill’s sponsor, said the committee had made “the strongest assisted dying legislation anywhere in the world even more safer and more robust”.
