THE Labour MP for Bangor Aberconwy, Claire Hughes, has explained why she voted in support of a bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales yesterday (November 29).

MPs voted 330 in favour, to 275 against, during the second reading of the bill in Parliament yesterday – this does not mean the bill has become law, but it allows it to continue for further parliamentary scrutiny.

Labour’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill would make assisted dying legal for terminally ill adults who are expected to die within six months and have the mental capacity to make a choice about how they end their life.

The bill also requires that two independent doctors and a High Court judge are satisfied that the individual making the request is older than 18, terminally ill with six months or less to live, and fully mentally competent.

Voting took place at about 2.30pm yesterday following roughly five hours’ debate in Parliament.

Ms Hughes said she made her decision having “given this issue the thought and consideration it deserves”.

She said she drew on her own experience of caring for her mother prior to her death from lung cancer in 2019.

“Even with the very best palliative care, it simply was not possible to relieve her suffering and anguish over the final weeks of her life,” Ms Hughes said.

“Having considered all the arguments, it is my firm belief that the status quo fails people at the end of life. That is why I am supporting the bill.

“This bill will provide choice for those who need it, and protection for us all.”

Ms Hughes added that the bill is “very tight in scope, and rightly so”, and said that good palliative care and assisted dying should not be “mutually exclusive”.

She said: “I am very aware that not everyone is lucky enough to access the high-quality palliative care which my mother and others have received.

“A recent Marie Curie report concluded that provision end of life care is patchy, inconsistent and inequitable; this has to change.

“But as the Health and Social Care Select Committee report concluded: even the best palliative care cannot remove all suffering. Again, for me, this is about choice at the end of life.”

Ms Hughes’ fellow Labour MPs on the North Wales coast, Becky Gittins (Clwyd East) and Gill German (Clwyd North) also voted in support of the bill yesterday.