For a brief moment earlier this year, it looked as though the assisted suicide Bill had been defeated. Not by some great parliamentary revolt, but simply because the clock ran out.
Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill had passed the Commons, but became bogged down in the House of Lords: peers tabled more than 1,000 amendments and spent 14 days examining it in committee. When Parliament was prorogued at the end of April, the Bill had not completed its remaining stages, and it fell.
