Kemi Badenoch has confirmed she will vote against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill when it returns to the House of Commons this week, despite saying she supports the principle of assisted dying. The Conservative leader urged MPs to be "clear-eyed" about what she called the Bill's "fatal flaws" and criticised suggestions that supporters could use the Parliament Acts to force the legislation through the House of Lords, arguing this would undermine proper parliamentary scrutiny of the issue.

The Bill, reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, is due for its Second Reading in the Commons on Friday, having previously passed two Commons votes before running out of time in the Lords in April amid accusations of filibustering. It would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death. Writing in The Telegraph, Badenoch said she was voting as a legislator rather than "as a grieving relative", while the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, separately warned that passing the Bill would signal that some lives are considered "not worth living" and urged the Commons to block it.