Assisted dying campaigners say dreams of peaceful death were shattered after 'democracy was hijacked'

Assisted dying campaigners say dreams of peaceful death were shattered after 'democracy was hijacked' Sobs followed the silence after assisted dying campaigners heard the news they had lost by 16 votes, and their joy from last year suddenly turned to despair Campaigners broke down sobbing in despair after the assisted dying bill was voted down, as their “dreams and hopes of a peaceful death” were shattered, saying "democracy has been hijacked". Campaigners, all dressed in pink, stood outside the House of Commons hugging and in floods tears after hearing MPs had voted against the assisted dying bill by 16 votes. It came as a hammer blow to campaigners after a two-year push to change the law. There were gasps and cheers inside Parliament as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was voted down by 286 votes to 270, in a result that almost certainly scuppers hopes of a law change until after the next general election. But outside on Parliament Square, campaigners stood in stunned silence as the news came through. They then slammed MPs for allowing a small handful of peers to ‘cheat and hijack democracy’ by forcing the bill out with more than 1,000 amendments. One woman, whose mum went to Dignitas to escape a painful death, bent over double, in grief. She had only moments earlier been talking about how she jumped for joy in the same spot in June 2025, when the bill was passed by MPs by 23 votes. Widow Louise Shackleton, 59, who travelled to Dignitas with her husband Antony almost two years ago, comforted fellow campaigners Sophie Blake, Joshua Cook and Jenny Carruthers. She said: “That’s exactly what religion does, cheating and lying! Democracy has been cheated and hijacked. These three people are terminally ill and my husband went to Switzerland and he had to die abroad. “These people should not have to travel to a foreign country to have a peaceful, loving calm death. If this is what MPs are about, shame on you! We are all completely devastated but we will regroup. We will fight for three quarters of the population to have their voices heard, that’s how many people wanted this bill.” Terminally ill Sophie Blake, 53, with tears streaming down her face, said: “Terminally ill people are still going to suffer as they die. And 650 people will still take their own lives every single year because they don’t have a choice. “This was never about our voices, they never heard our voices. They talked about endless hypotheticals. All we wanted was to take control at the end of our lives, that’s all we wanted. We never wanted to take anything away from anyone else. “They’ve taken away our choice to live in peace. Most people can’t afford £15,000 to go abroad, most people don’t want to go and die alone, Most people don’t want to risk their family being criminalised. They have denied all of us a peaceful death.” Foreigner semi-pro rugby player Joshua Cook, 35, from West Yorkshire, said: "There is no palliative care option for the way that I will die, which is choking on my own saliva. That is what Huntington’s will take me to, I will choke to death.” Joshua’s own mother Lisa, who had the same disease, had campaigned for assisted dying for more than a decade before taking her own life. “Twenty years I’ve been campaigning," he said. "Others campaigning for change, I’ve watched all of them go. I’ve got 20 years left and what’s it going to be another 20 years before it’s spoken about again? They have shattered the dreams and hopes of the terminally ill.” Esther Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox said the vote had “rewarded cheating and lying and filibustering, and breaking the rules”. When asked if she has spoken to mum, she broke down in tears saying: “I don’t know how to tell her. My mum is on her deathbed. I am devastated. I think this is a travesty." Minutes later, Esther, via Rebecca's phone to reporters outside Parliament, said over the speaker: “I’m so sad that people in this country won’t have the choice so many terminally ill adults have in other countries, of shortening their own deaths by asking for help. “I am sure a change in the law will come. I am deeply sad that it won’t come soon enough for many of the people who need it. It’s a tragic day.” Rebecca added: "Mum’s completely right that it is a tragic day. I think it’s a demolition of democracy. There was a democratic process that was fair, that was voted on, and those few peers were smiling and happy in that building then. They looked like the cat that got the cream because they knew that through cheating, lying and filibustering they won today. "And people like my mum lost today, in such a huge way. This was never going to come in time for my family but it was going to come in time for other people. It was going to come within four years and we were suddenly a brilliant country again that had empathy at its core. "I am so devastated, and so many people in there are devastated, because what has happened does not reflect the will of the majority at all.” Seconds before the news of the vote came through, opponents of the bill cheered as they heard the news first, just a few feet away. Silent Witness actress Liz Carr said: "Incredible relief, absolutely relief. I don't think it's about being a win. My fears of this bill being brought in were so great. Now we can set to work to improve end of life care, social care so that everyone gets the end of life they deserve." It emerged Labour former minister Janet Daby switched her vote, saying she had “nightmares about dying and death” after she voted in favour of in 2025. She said: “I had to wrestle with myself, knowing that I was not entirely comfortable with the decision I had made, and my conscience was not at peace, and I cannot again, in good conscience, vote for the Bill.” Opponents had been buoyed by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's decision to abstain on the vote, saying he did not want to influence the debate. In the summer, he questioned the timing of the move, saying it would be challenging to introduce before social and palliative care were improved. Poppy Bilderbeck, 26, from London, had tears in her eyes after the vote came back. But despite MPs shattering her hopes, she stressed she would not want them to experience the same ‘nightmare’ death her mum did. Single mum, Kate, a nurse, died in agony from stage three pancreatic cancer in August 2025 after going through 60 rounds of chemotherapy. "We are all heartbroken. Now every single day, every single month, every single year, people will have to go through what my mum did and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Something needs to change. I hope they never have a loved one go through what my mum experienced. I would not wish that on anyone. "In 2022, mum was given one year to live, but lived for three. She was a powerhouse and beautifully stubborn like that," the writer told The Mirror. "My mum's death was traumatic. In her final days in the hospice, she only woke up to cry out in pain. She woke up once and then didn't remember who I was. She couldn't walk, she couldn't eat. "It got to the point where I don't know who would like to live like that. I think there should be a choice. It was heartbreaking. It was a nightmare and a nightmare I would not want anyone else to go through. If people had seen what I had seen I don't know how anyone would vote against it." Widower James Marment clutched a handwritten cardboard sign, which said: "My wife died in pain and anxiety in July. She should have had the right to decide how she died". After the vote, he said he felt "deflated". He said he was "hugely disappointed" with MPs who he believes may have been unwilling to 'rock the boat' with the new PM. His voice cracked with emotion as he told the Mirror the way his wife Suzie died, which he described as her ‘worst nightmare’ - she had been ‘locked in’ her body unable to move, speak or even blink. He explained how Susie, a radiographer for the NHS for 40 years, from Battersea, died of a very rare neurological disease called PML, a virus in the brain which causes ‘every faculty’ to fail. “Her worst nightmare was to be locked in, being unable to hear and see what was happening and not being able to express herself and that’s what happened to her,” he said. “She was given tremendous support and care at the Royal Trinity Hospice on Clapham Common but there is nothing they can do with a patient who is losing control over every faculty. “She was such a caring person, who fundraised for McMillan, and she did not want her family to see her suffer in a way that caused them pain and anxiety. She was always thinking of other people. She was unable to move, to speak or even blink her eyes. We did not wish her to die like that. “It was very distressing indeed, which is why I am here today. To try and help other people not to have to go through that. We knew she wanted to go months before but there was no way she could. “I was beside her bed with her daughter when she finally died and it was a blessed relief for her and for us. She was a magnificent woman, one of life’s lovely people. She should not have had to suffer in that way.” She told how they were warned the time was near and pushed her mum's birthday celebrations forward. There were 40 of her loved ones crammed around her in the hospice, along with six cakes. "There was a moment when I was holding her hand and she said: 'This would have been the perfect time to go.' It's just heartbreaking she did not have that choice. Those last days of her life have now tainted my memories of her." The bill would have allowed terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with less than six months to live, to seek an assisted death, subject to approval from two doctors and an expert panel. But opponents had raised concerns about safety and coercion of vulnerable people. Labour MP Lauren Edwards, who spearheaded the new bill, said Parliament had "dropped the ball" with a result that dashed the hopes of thousands of terminally ill people and their loved ones. She said: "The public, who strongly support a change in the law, will not understand why that couldn’t happen because a minority in the House of Lords used procedural devices to block it, and MPs baulked at insisting that they do their job. "Assisted Dying will come in this country, as it is already doing all across the world, but not soon enough. Parliament has dropped the ball today. It will be picked up again as it must be, because the law as it stands is simply too cruel and too unjust to be allowed to stand." Opponents, Labour MPs Ashley Dalton, Meg Hillier and Jess Asato said: “MPs have voted against this Bill because it wasn’t an abstract debate but a decision about a real Bill that was unsafe and unworkable. “But this is not a moment for celebration, we understand the deep concerns of so many people across the country who have campaigned hard for a change in the law." They added: “The PM is right; we must fix our NHS and sort out social and palliative care before we even consider introducing assisted dying.” During more than four hours of debate, MPs on both sides shared deeply moving personal testimonies on an issue that has divided Parliament. Minister Alison McGovern broke down at the dispatch box as she spoke of her own experience with hospices and the death of her mother in July. Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove revealed that her mother had decided to bring her late-stage terminal illness to an end “on her terms” and the “harmful status quo” meant she died alone in October last year, after living with a rare blood cancer for half her life. The MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke in Gloucestershire said: “For Mum, it wasn’t a choice of life or death. It was a question of what kind of death she would have. “She was clear that she didn’t want a painful or undignified death. She wanted peace. For us, it will always be a tremendous personal sadness that the current law meant that she couldn’t tell us her plan, and we couldn’t say goodbye to her." Former health minister Ashley Dalton, who has stage four metastatic breast cancer, opposed the bill in a speech where she became visibly emotional. She said: “In the campaign around this Bill, it seems to me that it’s being implied that a person with a terminal illness will have a dreadful, painful death unless they have access to assisted dying – and it’s simply not true. “Palliative care in the UK is excellent. Far too many people do not have access to palliative care that they need but the idea that it is not possible to alleviate pain and discomfort is false.” The original bill, brought forward by Kim Leadbeater, passed the Commons in June 2025 by 23 votes. But it failed to get onto the statute books before the end of the parliamentary session after a deadlock in the House of Lords. Friday’s result shows the number of opponents stayed broadly the same but 45 fewer MPs supported it compared to last year.