MPs have voted down the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its second reading, defeating the assisted dying legislation by 286 votes to 270 in a dramatic reversal after it returned to the Commons on Friday. This marks a major setback for campaigners, as the Commons had previously backed the bill 314 votes to 291 in June 2025, meaning support fell away significantly before this latest vote. Bill sponsor Lauren Edwards had warned that rejection could delay the issue for another decade before Parliament considers it again.

The four-and-a-half-hour debate featured emotional interventions from MPs on both sides, including Labour's Ashley Dalton, who has incurable stage four breast cancer, urging colleagues to reject the bill and arguing patients had been "scaremongered" about painful deaths. Fellow Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove spoke in favour, describing her mother's terminal illness and death "on her terms" amid what she called a "harmful status quo". The bill would have allowed terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to seek an assisted death, subject to approval from two doctors and an expert panel; the government remained neutral, MPs voted on conscience rather than party lines, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham abstained to avoid influencing the debate.