How your MP voted on the assisted dying debate

A majority of MPs have voted in favour of a bill to make assisted dying legal in England and Wales. Representatives voted on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives, in parliament today.

MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve it at second reading. The Bill will next go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who has put forward the Bill, has said it would likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place. Ms Leadbeater said debate in the House of Commons on the issue is “long overdue” and, while not an easy subject, it is the job of parliamentarians to “address the issues that matter to people”.

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She told the House of Commons: "This Bill will give society a much better approach towards end of life. We’re already seeing conversations about dying and death in a way that we haven’t seen, I don’t think, enough in this country.”

Opposition and pro-change campaigners had gathered outside Parliament from early on Friday. Conservative MP Danny Kruger, the lead MP for opponents of the Bill, said he believed Parliament can do “better” for terminally ill people than a “state suicide service”.

Mr Kruger’s mother, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has been vocal in her support for legalisation of assisted dying. Mr Kruger branded the Bill “too flawed”, while Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the proposed legislation is the “wrong and rushed answer to a complex problem”, and “falls woefully short on safeguarding patients”.

Using our widget below, you can find out how your MP voted on the bill

Supporters of the assisted dying Bill wept and hugged each other outside Parliament as the news came through that it had been passed by MPs. The crowd in Parliament Square erupted into cheers as they watched the results on their phones.

Joshua Cook, 33, from Huddersfield, who has Huntington’s disease – an incurable neurodegenerative disease, said it was a “relief”. He said: “It is a weight off my mind, as a terminally ill person, and you can just look around here, at people who are truly affected by this.

“It’s a relief it’s history, finally we are getting towards having a society that shows love and compassion above the need to just keep people alive.”

He said it was a personal relief for him. “For me personally it means that for my end of life now I have options,” he said. “When my illness becomes too much for me, my Huntington’s starts to take its toll, I will have the recourse and the ability to make a choice and take control back.”

He added: “It’s 10 years too late for my mother, 10 years too late for people who inspired me. But finally Kim has done something incredible, she has given hope and love back to the people.”

However, Danny Kruger, the first speaker to oppose the Bill in the Commons, told Sky News he was “very disappointed” it had passed its second reading. The Conservative MP for East Wiltshire added: “I am very sorry that I and others didn’t persuade enough others to win, but what really did come across is everyone agrees we need to improve palliative care, which is my main concern.” Mr Kruger indicated he was likely to vote against the Bill again in future.