Largest poll on assisted dying since Leadbeater Bill introduced finds no public mandate in any constituency in GB for reviving failed Bill
A landmark MRP poll of over 10,000 people shows that there is no mandate from the public to revive Kim Leadbeater’s failed assisted dying bill and circumvent the House of Lords to push it into law.
The poll is the largest public poll conducted on assisted dying since the Leadbeater assisted dying Bill was introduced in October 2024.
The poll has been released as MPs who came in the top seven in the recently held House of Commons Private Members' Ballot are coming under pressure to revive the Leadbeater assisted dying Bill.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards and Lib Dem MP Andrew George, both of whom came in the top seven, are reported to be under the most pressure from assisted dying campaigners to revive the Bill. Further data for each of their constituencies is provided below.
Assisted dying campaigners have outlined that their plan involves persuading one of the MPs drawn in the ballot to reintroduce the Leadbeater assisted dying Bill - and then use the Parliament Acts to circumvent the House of Lords to push it into law.
While campaigners are urging MPs who rank in the ballot to revive the Bill, the landmark MRP poll suggests there is no national or constituency-level mandate for using the Parliament Acts to push a new Bill through Parliament without full scrutiny and approval by both Houses.
In every one of Great Britain’s 632 constituencies, a majority agreed that they would not want their MP to support a law pushed through Parliament without full scrutiny and approval by both the House of Lords and House of Commons.
The poll also found that legalising assisted dying did not rank among the top five priorities in a single constituency in Great Britain - and in every constituency, the majority of voters agreed that Parliament should prioritise fixing the NHS and improving palliative, social and end-of-life care before considering whether to introduce assisted dying.
Chelsea Roff, the founder of leading eating disorder charity Eat Breathe Thrive, has warned that reviving the assisted dying Bill would mean bringing back the anorexia loophole. The polling found that in every constituency in Great Britain, a majority agree their MP should not support a Bill to legalise assisted dying that allows patients with anorexia or other eating disorders to end their lives through assisted dying.
The polling was carried out by Whitestone Insight on behalf of think tank The Other Half from 7-14 May, and canvassed the views of 10,222 people across Great Britain. It uses MRP, the constituency-level modelling technique that came to prominence after YouGov’s 2017 model correctly pointed to a hung Parliament against the expectations of many conventional polls.
Key results:
1 - Majorities in every GB constituency reject bypassing the Lords to force a non-manifesto bill into law
The MRP poll suggests that there is no public mandate in any constituency in the country for reviving the assisted dying Bill and then using the Parliament Acts to circumvent the House of Lords to push it into law.
In every single constituency in Great Britain, a majority of voters do not want their MP to support a law pushed through Parliament without full scrutiny and approval by both the House of Lords and House of Commons.
Across the country, a mere 8% of the public supported pushing a non-manifesto commitment into law without approval and full scrutiny from both Houses.
In the St Ives constituency of Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP who came fourth in yesterday’s PMB ballot and who has announced he is considering bringing back the Leadbeater Bill, 64% (almost two-thirds) agreed they would not want their MP to support a law pushed through without full scrutiny and approval by both Houses; just 8% disagreed.
In Rochester and Strood, the constituency of Lauren Edwards, who came second in the PMB ballot and is the other MP most likely to bring back the Bill, 61% of constituents agree they would not want their MP to support a law pushed through without full scrutiny and approval by both Houses; only 8% disagreed.
In Kim Leadbeater’s own constituency of Spen Valley, 61% agreed they would not want their MP to support a law pushed through without full scrutiny and approval by both Houses, compared with just 8% who disagreed.
In Makerfield, the seat Andy Burnham is seeking as a route back to Westminster, 60% agreed, while just 8% disagreed.
In Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency, voters agreed by 58% to 7% that they would not want their MP to support a law pushed through without full scrutiny and approval by both Houses.
In the seats of the Health Secretary, Justice Secretary and Leader of the House, voters also backed full scrutiny by large margins.
In no constituency in Great Britain did disagreement with full scrutiny reach 12%.
2 - Assisted dying is not a public priority
Legalising assisted dying came rock bottom of a list of voters’ priorities they want their MP to focus on if they have the opportunity to make a law change (e.g. through a Private Members’ Bill) over the next year.t with half the support of the next lowest scoring priority. Asked to select three priorities, just 7% of the public and 7% of Labour voters consider assisted dying a priority.
Assisted dying was a priority for only 7% of Conservative voters, 6% of Reform voters and 9% of Liberal Democrat voters.
When asked whether legalising assisted suicide should be a priority for their MP in the next year.
Assisted dying did not rank among the top five named priorities in a single constituency in Great Britain, and it ranked in the bottom three of ten priorities in 630 of 632 constituencies in Great Britain.
This included
1 -St Ives (Andrew George; came fourth in PMB ballot) - assisted suicide ranked last, with just 8% of his constituents including assisted suicide in their top three priorities for their MP if they had the chance to bring forward a law change.
2 -Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards; came second in PMB ballot) - legalising assisted suicide came bottom of 10 possible priorities for constituents; only 7% of her constituents included it in their top three priorities for what they would want her to prioritise if she had a chance to bring forward a change in the law
3 -Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) - ranked last
4 -Makerfield (Burnham target) - ranked last
5 -Holborn and St Pancras (Starmer) - ranked last
6 -Ilford North (Streeting) - ranked last
3 - Majorities in every GB seat says Parliament should prioritise NHS and end-of-life care first
In every single constituency in Great Britain, the majority of voters agreed that Parliament should prioritise fixing the NHS and improving palliative, social and end-of-life care before considering whether to introduce assisted suicide.
Across Great Britain, 60% of the public believe fixing the NHS and improving palliative, social & end-of-life care before considering whether to introduce assisted suicide is a priority, and only 19% disagreed.
Across Great Britain, a majority of the public believes the NHS is not in a fit state to safely provide assisted dying. Just 19% disagree. Twice as many people fear that some people would choose assisted dying out of concern for being a burden on family or the NHS, as those who do not share this concern.
4 - Majorities in every GB seat backs the Lords’ duty to scrutinise, amend or block risky legislation
In every single constituency in Great Britain, a majority of voters believe members of the House of Lords have a duty to scrutinise, amend or, if necessary, block any legislation if they believe it could put vulnerable people at risk.
This follows interventions from the House of Lords Constitution Committee and Hansard Society, which made clear that, because Kim Leadbeater’s Bill was a Private Members’ Bill and was not part of the Government’s manifesto, peers were not constitutionally required to pass it or send it back to the Commons.
5 - Majorities in every GB seat do not want their MP supporting a Bill to legalise assisted dying that allows patients with anorexia or other eating disorders to end their lives
In every single constituency in Great Britain, a majority agree their MP should not support a Bill to legalise assisted dying that allows patients with anorexia or other eating disorders to end their lives through assisted dying.
Chelsea Roff, the founder of leading eating disorder charity Eat Breathe Thrive, has warned that reviving the assisted dying Bill would mean bringing back the anorexia loophole.
Eating disorder loopholes for those with Bulimia and Type 1 Diabetes with Disordered Eating (T1DE) remain in the Bill.
At least 60 people have had their lives ended worldwide by lethal drugs, where the qualifying condition was an eating disorder. All were women.
6 -Voters want safeguards that are missing in the Bill as it left the Commons in the previous session
The public made it clear that there are many concerns and unresolved safeguards in the Leadbeater assisted dying Bill as it left the Commons that they want addressed before any such law is introduced.
But if the Parliament Acts were to be used, the Commons would have to pass the same Bill that left the Commons in 2025, leaving no opportunity to correct its many flaws.
Results
1 - Family notification: In every single constituency, the majority of the public said that family members and/or next of kin should have the right to be told about a family member’s request to have a doctor assist in their suicide
Under the Bill as it left the Commons, there is no requirement to inform or involve relatives, and no safeguard to ensure families are aware before an assisted suicide takes place, meaning they may only find out afterwards.
2 - Patient-led only: In every constituency in Great Britain, more people said that only the patient themselves should be able to raise the option of assisted suicide than said this should not be required.
Under the Bill as it left the Commons, a doctor can raise the idea of ending one’s life by assisted dying unprompted / without the patient first asking about it.
3 - Domestic abuse protections: In every single constituency, the majority of the public said that extra care should be taken to protect victims of domestic abuse from being coerced into an assisted death
While the Bill includes domestic abuse training and coercion offences, it does not create a standalone domestic abuse victim safeguard or bar.
Training on domestic abuse is a weak safeguard, and resulted in zero domestic abuse victims being screened out in coercion checks in Western Australia, as we set out in The Other Half’s evidence to the Commons. That training is online e-learning of less than an hour.
4 - Coroner oversight: In every single constituency, the majority of the public said coroners, who investigate all unusual deaths, should also be involved in checking all assisted suicides
Among all those surveyed, 64% of all those polled said coroners, who investigate all unusual deaths, should also be involved in checking all assisted suicides.
The Bill as it left the Commons amends the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to ensure there is no statutory duty to investigate deaths “caused by the self-administration by the deceased of an approved substance”. This means that the deaths of those who die by assisted dying would not be automatically referred to a coroner, as is normally required in cases of “unnatural deaths” (see Coroners and Justice Act 2009 s1(2)(a) or those caused by the administration of drugs.
Experts have shared their concerns that a lack of coroner oversight in the bill risks hiding unlawful deaths or abuses.
It is thanks to the work of coroners that we understand that suicide may be the cause of more deaths from domestic abuse victims than homicides, with the Crown Prosecution Service now prosecuting men whom it believes may have coerced their partners into suicide.
Coroners and assisted dying campaigns have long had an adversarial relationship. Only by chance did a coronial inquest lead to the investigation of the leader of one British assisted dying campaign in up to 250 killings. He, and the janitor of the Voluntary Euthanasia society (who are now known as Dignity in Dying) were convicted for their role in 6 cases, mostly the deaths of elderly or disabled women. See our history of this here.
5 - Universal palliative care first: In every single constituency, the majority of the public said universal end-of-life care should be introduced before assisted suicide is legalised
61% of all those polled said universal end-of-life care should be introduced before assisted suicide is legalised.
Under the Bill as it left the Commons, such care is not a precondition for legalisation.
Comments
Jess Asato, Labour MP for Lowestoft, said:
“Two years ago, like all Labour MPs, I was elected on a manifesto focused on the priorities of people up and down the country. On improving their standard of living, fixing the NHS and rebuilding our country.
This polling shows that this hasn’t changed. We need to be resolutely focused on why people put us in Government and any distraction from our core mission squanders our political capital, and the resources, time and energy of this Labour Government.
We know the Assisted Dying Bill is flawed and unsafe because the experts like the royal medical colleges and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission have told us.
The last thing Labour MPs should be focusing on right now is continuing to debate this deeply divisive, flawed and risky Bill.”
Fiona Mackenzie MBE, CEO of The Other Half said:
“This polling clearly shows that the public does not want assisted dying introduced via the back door using the Parliament Acts. In every constituency in Great Britain, voters say they do not want their MP to back a law pushed through without the approval of both Houses of Parliament. This should be a warning to any MP thinking of giving in to pressure from assisted dying campaigners to use the Private Members’ Bill ballot to revive Kim Leadbeater’s Bill.
“Assisted dying is a proposed law change that should require the highest level of scrutiny, not a procedural manoeuvre to get around the House of Lords to push it into law.
“There is no public mandate to bring back the assisted dying Bill. In not one constituency did legalising assisted dying rank in the top five issues for MPs to focus on.
“Being successful in the ballot provides a rare chance to do something useful for constituents. MPs should think very hard before squandering that opportunity on a Bill their constituents do not rank as a priority.
“MPs who are drawn in the ballot will have to ask themselves whether they really want to divert a huge amount of parliamentary time reopening a deeply divisive battle that voters are not asking them to prioritise.”
Andrew Hawkins, founder and CEO of Whitestone Insight, said:
“Large national polls can sometimes hide big local differences, which is why MRP is useful. But what is striking here is how consistent the picture is across Great Britain.
“In every constituency we modelled, more voters said they would not want their MP to support a law being pushed through without sufficient scrutiny, or the approval of both Houses, than said the opposite. So this is not a story of a handful of outlier seats. The demand for proper parliamentary scrutiny is broad, deep and remarkably consistent across the country.
“Voters are effectively saying: if Parliament is dealing with a life-and-death issue, they expect Parliament to do its job properly and the polling paints a picture of an electorate that is wary of unintended consequences. It expects MPs and peers alike to scrutinise any legislation rigorously.
“The other notable point is priorities. When voters were asked what issues their MPs should focus on over the next year, assisted suicide did not rank in the top five in any constituency. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the many challenges facing the country, voters do not consider assisted suicide a leading national concern. Across Britain, voters are far more focused on NHS waiting lists, immigration, energy prices, inflation and the economy than on changing the law on assisted suicide.
“The polling therefore sends a clear message to MPs: deal with the crises people are living through before reopening one of the country’s most sensitive moral debates.
“On the specifics of any law change, there is overwhelming support for stronger protections around coercion, domestic abuse, family involvement and end-of-life care.
“And far from wanting the Lords to ‘get out of the way’, most voters support the principle that peers should amend or even block legislation if they believe vulnerable people could be put at risk.
“Overall, the findings challenge the idea that assisted suicide is an urgent electoral priority. Voters appear much more concerned about competence, care standards and due process.”
Ends
Whitestone interviewed 10,222 GB adults online from 7-14 May 2026. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults by gender, age, social grade, other demographics and past voting patterns.
Data tables for the poll: https://www.whitestoneinsight.com/the-other-half-mrp-may-2026
The Other Half is a centre of research for practical, workable policy in the interests of women - https://theotherhalf.uk/
If you need additional information or want to organise a media interview with our CEO, Fiona Mackenzie MBE, email hello@theotherhalf.uk