MPs have rejected legislation to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, voting down the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at second reading on Friday by 286 votes to 270, a majority of 16.
The result reverses the Commons' own position of 14 months earlier, when a near-identical measure sponsored by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater cleared its third reading on 20 June 2025 by 314 to 291. The bill will now proceed no further, ending the second attempt in two years to change the law.
The measure was presented on 17 June 2026 by Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, who was drawn second in the private members' bill ballot for the current session, according to a House of Commons Library briefing. It would have allowed terminally ill adults reasonably expected to die within six months to seek assistance to end their lives, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel of experts.
The government took a neutral position and MPs were given a free vote. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, did not take part, having said in advance that he would not do so in order not to "unduly influence the debate", according to the Press Association. Reuters has reported that Burnham believes the question should wait until palliative and adult social care are improved.
Edwards said in a statement reported by LabourList: "This is a hugely disappointing result – not for me but for the many thousands of terminally ill people and their loved ones who were given hope when the Commons voted for this bill last year.
"It is all the more heartbreaking for them because support for choice at the end of life is still as strong in Parliament as it was before. The objections raised today were not about the principle of assisted dying but about parliamentary process."
Opponents rejected that account. In a joint statement carried by LabourList, the Labour MPs Ashley Dalton, Meg Hillier and Jess Asato said: "MPs have voted against this Bill because it wasn't an abstract debate but a decision about a real Bill that was unsafe and unworkable."
The three added that no relevant royal medical college, professional group or expert would attest to the safety or workability of the bill, a claim they made in their own words rather than one established in the debate.
Dalton, who resigned as a health minister earlier this year and has stage 4 incurable metastatic breast cancer, told the Commons: "The last time this House considered this bill at second reading, I was keeping a secret." She said she lived "between scans in nine to 12 week blocks of time".
Speaking for the bill, the Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove disclosed her mother's death for the first time. "Last October, my mum, Ruth Hazelgrove, chose to bring her late-stage terminal illness to an end, on her terms at home, with dignity and with a strength I can only try to imagine," she said, according to ITV News.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said the vote was "devastating for dying people and their families, who will face the consequences of today's vote". Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, called it "a decisive vote by MPs" and said they should now focus on palliative care funding.
Sam Royston, executive director of research and policy at Marie Curie, said the government must address the crisis in palliative care whatever happened to the assisted dying legislation, and called for a new framework and funding, the Guardian reported.
The Scottish Parliament rejected its own assisted dying bill in March by 69 votes to 57, while the Assisted Dying (Jersey) Law 2026 received royal assent in July and is due to take effect next year.
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