The will of the elected chamber – and a popular, compassionate piece of legislation – must not be frustrated again by a small minority of peers

• Lauren Edwards is the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood

I was elected to Westminster two years ago, when the country was crying out for change and looking to parliament to tackle the big issues that had been forgotten for too long. When that change didn’t come fast enough, trust in politics once again started to ebb away. We have one last chance to prove we can deliver on people’s priorities.

Assisted dying didn’t feature in the manifesto I was elected on. Nor should it have done. Matters of conscience such as this are rightly left to individual MPs to decide upon. There will always be a range of views within all political parties. But this issue has been supported by a substantial majority in the country for a very long time. Reputable independent polling has shown support for assisted dying consistently at about 75%. The latest British social attitudes survey from the National Centre for Social Research found that “it is clear we are observing a continued high level of public support for legal change to allow assisted dying in some circumstances”.

Lauren Edwards is the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood and has reintroduced the terminally ill adults bill in parliament

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