www.silverguide.site –

Back in the Lords, Conservative former deputy prime minister Therese Coffey said she thought some MPs and peers were more interested in passing an unsafe assisted dying bill than introducing proper safeguards.

Representing the view of opponents of assisted dying, Coffey said: “The continuing claim that this bill is the safest in the world, and was largely good to go in the house, perhaps with a few tweaks, just does not hold true.”

She admitted she had tabled “more amendments than she had expected to”, but said it was due to a lack of information from the government over workability.

“I do fear that many peers and many MPs are putting choice for some ahead of concern on coercion for others,” she said.

Meanwhile, Wales’s first minister, Eluned Morgan, has likened herself to a strawberry daiquiri as she warned constituents she could lose her seat in the Welsh parliament election, PA reports.

The Welsh Labour leader used canned cocktails to explain the new voting system in Wales in a video posted on social media. Constituents will be represented by six members of the Senedd, but Morgan said Plaid Cymru “is pretty secure, they’ve got at least two seats, maybe even a third”.

“So, the real battle is between Reform, the Tories and Labour,” she added.

“That’s me,” she said, holding a canned strawberry daiquiri up to the camera.

She used a mojito to represent Plaid Cymru, a blue raspberry martini for the Conservatives, an espresso martini for Reform, a pina colada for the Greens, and an Irn-Bru vodka martini for the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

“Because the real danger is that if you don’t come out and don’t support Labour, you’re going to get another Reform person.”

Updated

The Lords has heard some personal and moving stories from peers in the assisted dying bill debate. Nick Markham spoke about his mother, a Marie Curie nurse who supported terminally ill people, who was diagnosed with late-stage womb cancer in 2007.

That experience changed how I see the debate. I consider myself broadly in favour of assisted dying because I believe in choice, in personal autonomy. But what I witnessed, and what I’ve learned since is what has happened to my mother happens quietly all the time across the country, informally and inconsistently, with no upfront oversight, no safeguards. The current ban does not prevent assisted dying. It simply makes it unregulated, unequal and unsafe.

The Tory peer relayed stories of other people who have died during the passage of the bill, including a terminally ill nurse whose daughter said she “watched her struggle each year to try and blow out a candle. I was forced to watch my only parent lying in bed unconscious, waking only to cry out in agony. … My mum’s birthday wish was to die”.

Markham told peers:

I am sorry that we’ve let them down and all I can say and pledge, and I know I speak for many, many of our colleagues here, is that we will try.

We will try and we will try again to bring this bill back as soon as possible in the next session, to do what is right democratically, and most importantly of all, to give those people who are terminally ill hope and choice of a better way to die.

House of Lords final debate on assisted dying bill under way

The final debate in the House of Lords on the assisted dying bill is happening now, follow along as we bring you the latest lines.

The bill passed the House of Commons in June last year, but there has been so many amendments tabled in the Lords – more than 1,280 – that it appears doomed to fail given there is not enough time to review them all before the end of this parliamentary session, expected next week.

Former justice secretary Charlie Falconer, who sponsored the Bill in the Lords, opened the proceedings today, saying: “I am despondent that this bill, so important to so many, has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling.

“There is no prospect that this bill can get through the House today or before prorogation ahead of the king’s speech on 13 May.”

Updated

After threatening to impose a “big tarriff”, the Trump administration is reportedly looking at further measures to punish the UK including reconsidering its position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.

An internal Pentagon email outlined options for the US to punish Nato allies for their perceived lack of support for the Iran war, according to Reuters, citing a US official. These include suspending Spain from Nato and reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European “imperial possessions,” such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina. It’s unclear whether any of these options are viable.

Donald Trump has repeatedly directed his ire at Keir Starmer for his unwillingness to join the war, saying he was “no Winston Churchill” and describing UK aircraft carriers as “toys”. Showing further strain in the “special relationship”, Trump threatened to impose “a big tariff” on the UK over its digital services tax on US social media firms.

For the latest Middle East news, you can follow our live blog here:

Updated

US officials stalling UK criminal investigation into Mandelson - report

Good morning. The UK criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson has reportedly ground to a halt after the US justice department refused to hand over evidence contained in the Epstein files.

The documents relate to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Scotland Yard believes could hold key evidence related to Mandelson, who served as business secretary and US ambassador. While the Met has asked for voluntary disclosure, the US department of justice is insisting on a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request, a legal back and forth between countries to obtain evidence, the Telegraph has reported.

The process could take from several months to over a year, according to some estimates, potentially delaying Scotland Yard’s investigation into Mandelson, who was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Even the Met police commissioner Mark Rowley’s direct appeals to the US ambassador, Warren Stephens, and his personal trip to Washington in March had failed to move the process forward, the newspaper reported.

Speaking of withholding documents, yesterday Cat Little, the top civil servant at the Cabinet Office, said the Foreign Office had refused to hand over a summary of Mandelson’s security vetting. Speaking at a Commons committee, Little said she had to get the document directly from UK Security Vetting (UKSV) instead after Olly Robbins, the subsequently sacked Foreign Office head, refused to provide it. You can read more on that story here:

In other news:

  • MPs must decide what to do with the assisted dying bill, which is set to run out of time to become law when a final debate ends in the House of Lords today. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has stalled in the Lords, which passed in the House of Commons almost a year ago, with more than 1,280 amendments made. Supporters of the bill, which would allow terminally ill adults who are given fewer than six months to live to seek medical help to end their life, now fear the bill is doomed to fail.

  • Reform UK has asked steel bosses to draw up an “alternative steel strategy” to rival recent government plans, stoking industry fears over a charm offensive by Nigel Farage’s party as it eyes gains in former Labour heartlands. Reform is trying to harness growing anger at the government for high business energy bills, exacerbated by the Iran war, which are damaging steel companies and the wider manufacturing sector. Reform’s overtures have received a mixed reception across the industry.

  • Donald Trump has threatened to impose “a big tariff” on the UK if it does not drop its digital services tax on US social media firms. The digital services tax, introduced in 2020, imposes a 2% levy on the revenues of several major US tech companies. “We’ve been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful,” Trump said.

On the agenda today:

  • Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will hold a rally in Swindon with shadow transport secretary Richard Holden.

  • Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will join a tea dance and meets residents at a care home in Wokingham.

  • Green Party leader Zack Polanski is holding a press conference in Glasgow.

Updated