According to an exclusive June 2 report from the Daily Mail, fewer than one in ten U.K. voters consider assisted suicide a priority for their Member of Parliament. The mega-poll of over 10,000 people comes as a blow to suicide activists, who are desperately trying to resurrect Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s euthanasia bill that died in the House of Lords on April 24 after facing over 1,000 amendments and running out of time.
That same month, suicide campaigners confirmed that they were planning to enlist 200 MPs to attempt to bring the failed legislation back as a Private Member’s Bill. Lord Charlie Falconer, the most prominent and vociferous supporter of Leadbeater’s bill in the House of Lords, supported the effort. Once the bill was brought forward, the Parliaments Acts could be used to bypass the House of Lords entirely and pass it into law.
“Taking the unprecedented route of using the Parliament Acts to bypass House of Lords’ scrutiny of a Private Members’ Bill would be politically explosive and divisive, setting a precedent that may worry many MPs,” Right to Life UK reported. “It would be the first time ever that the Parliament Acts would be used for a Private Members’ Bill.”
Suicide campaigners had justified taking radical measures to ram the euthanasia bill through on the premise that voters were also desperate for it to pass; the new poll, however, reveals just the opposite. The poll, which is the largest since the bill was introduced in October 2024 and was conducted by Whitestone Insight, found that only 7 percent want assisted suicide to be among their local MPs top three priorities in the next year.
