Members of the House of Lords have proposed “totally unnecessary” and “very cruel” amendments to the assisted dying bill in an attempt to scupper it, the MP leading the campaign has said.
Kim Leadbeater said on Friday she believed that peers opposed to the bill were trying to block it by proposing hundreds of changes, including one that would require terminally ill people to be filmed as they undergo an assisted death.
Sir Keir Starmer promised to bring meaningful reform to the House of Lords. He is failing to introduce it
In opposition, Sir Keir Starmer called the unelected House of Lords “indefensible”. This week, barely 18 months into his prime ministership, Sir Keir took the total of unelected peers he has appointed since July 2024 to 96. Remarkably, Wednesday’s 34 new life peerages, mainly Labour supporters, take his appointment total above those of each of his four most recent Conservative predecessors. You must go back to David Cameron to find a prime minister who did more to stuff the Lords than Sir Keir.
At the last election, Labour presented itself to the voters as a party of Lords reform. The party manifesto promised to remove the remaining hereditary peers, to reform the appointments process, to impose a peers’ retirement age, and to consult on proposals for replacing the Lords with an alternative second chamber. The House of Lords, the manifesto flatly declared, was “too big”.
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Defying the will of the House of Commons will increase calls for radical reform of the upper house sooner rather than later, say the MPs Nia Griffith, Justin Madders and Debbie Abrahams
When visitors come to parliament, it seems incongruous to explain that, in our mother of parliaments, we have a second chamber – the House of Lords – which is unelected. Those who support its existence in its current or similar form justify it on the grounds that it performs a useful revising function which can improve the detail of legislation, and it undoubtedly does good work.
But the fact that it is unelected can only be tolerated in a democracy provided its members accept that it is for the House of Commons to have the last word on what becomes law and what doesn’t in this country.
Senior opponents of assisted dying legislation have called on peers not to hold up the progress of the bill through parliament, warning there was a serious danger of the Lords losing democratic legitimacy.
Many supporters now admit the bill is in serious danger of running out of time in the Lords before the end of the parliamentary session, meaning it will fail to pass, because of the slow pace of considering more than 1,000 amendments means the bill will probably run out of time for a vote.
The government has vowed that there will be no more concessions on the employment rights bill and that it will force the Lords to vote on it again next week, after Conservative and cross-bench peers blocked it on Wednesday night.
Ministers and trade unions expressed fury that the bill was voted down again in the House of Lords by peers protesting against the lifting of the compensation cap for unfair dismissal, calling it “cynical wrecking tactics that risk a constitutional crisis”.
Government lost Lords vote on employment rights bill by 24 votes, just hours after the creation of 25 new Labour peers
Good morning. Yesterday Keir Starmer announced the creation of 25 Labour new peers. About an hour or so later, the government lost an important vote on the employment rights bill – by 24 votes.
The defeat was unexpected, because the government because already announced a significant U-turn on the bill, as part a compromise deal negotiated with business and unions intended to ensure the legislation clears the Lords quickly. What is going to happen next is not yet clear.
Flagship workers’ rights reforms face a further holdup as peers inflicted a defeat over a late change linked to the government concession on unfair dismissal that has been branded “a job destroyer”.
The latest setback means a continuation of the parliamentary tussle over the employmentrightsbill known as “ping-pong”, when legislation is batted between the Commons and Lords until agreement is reached.
Continuing to vote down the employment rights bill – a clear manifesto commitment – is undemocratic. This bill has been debated and scrutinised for months. Tory Peers are actively defying the will of the British public and their own supporters who overwhelmingly support measures in this bill.
The behaviour of the House of Lords can no longer be seen as constructive scrutiny and increasingly looks like cynical wrecking tactics that risk a constitutional crisis if they continue.
Further delay is in nobody’s interests and only prolongs uncertainty, the bill must pass before Christmas including lifting the caps on compensation.
Labour says appointments needed to balance upper house, and chooses former advisers to No 10 and the chancellor
Keir Starmer has appointed 25 Labour peers including a number of former senior government and party aides in an attempt to strengthen his hand in the House of Lords.
Matthew Doyle, a former No 10 director of communications, and Katie Martin, a former chief of staff to Rachel Reeves, will be among those appointed to the upper house in a move first reported by the Guardian.
What his account overlooks are the thousands of patients in the UK denied genuine choice because they lack access to palliative care. The House of Lords is rightly undertaking line‑by‑line scrutiny of the proposals, and expert testimony has raised serious concerns and widespread opposition. The current law already affords dignity and protection to vulnerable, elderly and disabled people. What we lack is sufficient palliative care and hospice provision, as repeatedly shown by Hospice UK and National Audit Office reports.
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