THE GOOD NEWS

An analysis published inThe Independentshows that at least 36 MPs who supported the Bill at Second Reading did so only to allow time for further debate or they have concerns that mean they won’t commit to supporting the Bill at Third Reading. Our Public Affairs team has also identified a number of other MPs who share these reservations.

With the vote passing at Second Reading by a margin of 55,just 28 MPs switching their stanceto oppose the Bill would ensure it is defeated at Third Reading, so there is a clear path towards this Bill being defeated.

We can still win this.

THE CHALLENGE

We know from all our past work in Parliament on this issue that when MPs see the undeniable evidence that the so-called ‘safeguards’ around assisted suicide laws just don’t work, they overwhelmingly vote against introducing assisted suicide.

But the assisted suicide lobby knows this too, which is likely why they strategically published the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill barely two weeks before the Second Reading vote.

Before this vote, we ran our largest ever campaign across Parliament, the media and online, working with many MPs, media personalities, online influencers and other organisations.

Hundreds of thousands of people like you lobbied their MPs to oppose this Bill.

Our Public Affairs team have analysed past votes on Private Members’ Bills and have found that more MPs voted against this Bill than inany other Private Members’ Bills in the last decade.

We were able to build up a massive amount of opposition to the Bill, but as the Bill was published so late, there was an incredibly short amount of time to get the right arguments in front of a large number of new MPs ahead of Second Reading.

The next stage of the Bill process (Committee Stage) will start as early as next week, but the Third Reading vote will likely not be until 25 April,so this time we have the advantage.

We will now have much more time to persuade more MPs that this Bill will be a disaster for our country if it becomes law and that they must vote against the Bill at Third Reading, but this will not be easy.

The assisted suicide lobby (led byDignity in Dying, along with several other organisations, includingMy Death, My DecisionandHumanists UK) have spent millions of pounds on lobbying MPs, in the media, online and among many other tactics, outrageously covering tube stations in London, where many people tragically take their own lives each year, with pro-assisted suicide posters.

The assisted suicide lobby are fully aware that support for the Bill is very fragile. They will fight fiercely to prevent 28 MPs from switching their votes to oppose the Bill.

They will also do everything in their power to pressure all MPs to vote in favour of the Bill.

For the sake of the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable lives that will be put at risk,we must win the voteand defeat this dangerous Bill.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our campaign in the run-up to Second Reading was the biggest and most expensive we have ever run and so it has made a significant dent in our limited financial resources.

We are now working on an even bigger campaign to defeat this dangerous Bill at Third Reading.

To ensure we effectively defeat this extreme assisted suicide Bill, we are aiming to raise at least £100,000 by midnight this Sunday (15 December 2024).

With Committee Stage starting as early as next week, we are running an appeal now to ensure we have the funds to begin our work on the campaign immediately.

£100,000 is the minimum we need. If we can raise more, we’ll be able to do even more to win this battle.

Please give as generously as you can. Every donation, no matter the size, will mean YOU can make a crucial difference in saving vulnerable lives from this extreme law change.

Will you make a donation now to help protect vulnerable lives from this major threat?