LOCAL MP Dan Norris was among those who voted in favour of plans to legalise assisted dying.
The private member’s bill by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, was backed in its crucial third reading by 314 MPs and opposed by 291 – a margin of just 23 votes. It will now need to go through the House of Lords before it can become law.
Ms Leadbeater said the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would “offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it.”
But critics, who include mother of the house Diane Abbot (also Labour), have warned that the bill lacks safeguards and vulnerable people could end up losing their lives.
Speaking in the House of Commons debate, Liberal Democrat Bath MP Wera Hobhouse said she had received emails from constituents implying that MPs were “too stupid or careless” to care for the vulnerable.
She asked Ms Leadbeater: “Is it not true that we all do care, whatever decision we make today, and that we have to continue to educate people and tell them what this bill is about?”
Ms Leadbeater said Ms Hobhouse was “absolutely right.”
She said: “We know that there are different views within the public, and we have to take on board the concerns of vulnerable groups – that is why the safeguards are so important – but I would also say that there is no one more vulnerable than someone who is dying.”
It was a free vote, allowing MPs to vote according to their conscience instead of being instructed by their party.
Dan Norris’s proxy vote was cast by Labour whip Chris Elmore.
The North East Somerset and Hanham independent MP is understood to be banned from the parliamentary estate under Parliament’s risk-based exclusion policy.
This follows his arrested in April on suspicion of sexual offences against a girl, rape, child abduction, and misconduct in a public office.
He has not been charged. The investigation is ongoing and he remains on police bail. Mr Norris was elected as a Labour MP but was suspended from the party upon his arrest.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service
Norris votes in favour of assisted dying bill
