Johnson will not stand behind efforts to ease assisted dying laws in Lords Bill

BORIS JOHNSON has decided not to back plans to relax the laws on assisted dying that are expected to be put before MPS in coming months, The Daily Telegraph understands.

The Prime Minister has come to his decision after reviewing arguments during his break in the summer.

There was speculation earlier this year that some senior ministers were moving towards supporting a change to the rules. In May Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, wrote to the chief statistician to ask for figures on how many terminally ill people were ending their lives every year.

Mr Hancock’s successor, Sajid Javid, is understood to have made clear he does not intend to vote to relax the law.

The Assisted Dying Bill, put forward by Baroness Meacher, the crossbench peer, is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords in two weeks’ time. The Bill would have to pass through all its stages in the Lords before it has a chance of entering the Commons early next year. It would only be debated in the Commons if it is given government time or picked up by an interested MP.

The Meacher reforms would give terminally ill and mentally competent adults in the final six months of their lives the option to die at a time and place of their choosing. All requests would be subject to approval from two independent doctors and a High Court judge with the person granted a prescription for medication they would take themselves.

Mr Johnson voted against liberalising assisted dying laws in 2015.

A government spokesman said: “Parliament has debated this issue on several occasions and as things stand the will of Parliament is that there should be no change to the law.”