Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Jess Phillips Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 11th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Karen Bradley]

I accept what the hon. Lady says, and I know she speaks with great sincerity, but it is still the case that under this Bill, somebody could be seen remotely—without a face-to-face appointment—where they are not alone and the coercive perpetrator may be forcing them.

[Jess Phillips (Birmingham Yardley) (Lab)]

Suicide currently outstrips homicide as the main reason for the deaths of women in cases of domestic abuse and coercive control, so what the right hon. Gentleman outlines is currently happening. Arguing for the status quo is not something I feel comfortable with. I feel considerably stronger about the safeguards that I worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) to ensure that the Bill had.

[Dame Karen Bradley]

I have enormous respect for the previous Minister, who I have worked closely with, but the point she is making about suicide of women who were victims of domestic abuse is a separate matter. For women to feel that they have nowhere else to go other than to commit suicide, is the most outrageous and horrendous situation, and we absolutely have to tackle and work on that. But this Bill is not the solution to that problem.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jess Phillips (Birmingham Yardley) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove). Mainly because I am a bit lazy, I rarely prepare to speak in debates, and never have copious notes. Her remarks have led where my remarks will go. I will cover the issue of coercion, which hon. Members have mentioned, and, like her, will talk about my mother, who also died when she was 61 years old, unfortunately when I was much younger than my hon. Friend. My mother died when I was 28 years old—many years ago now.

My mother had a leiomyosarcoma, and suffered with it for around three years. The prognosis did change—I hear the arguments that some hon. Members are making—but towards the end of her life, at one point she felt she was going to die. It was coming to the end. She was in a wheelchair. She was completely paralysed. She was doubly incontinent by this point. To give hon. Members an idea of the kind of woman my mother was, she was an absolute titan. She was like Erin Brockovich, but with a bad perm, in the 1980s. She could lay claim to being able to spot talent, because she gave a job to the current Prime Minister, who worked for her for some time. He is often teary-eyed when I talk to him about her.

My brothers live in different parts of the world and country, but I live 20 minutes from where I was born and where my mother lived. When she got to this stage, we all went back to be with her, because we believed that this was it—that she was going to be taken, that she was going to die. She did not die on that occasion, so my brother, who lives in France, went back home. Then, when it came to the point that a doctor made the call and said, “Your mom is about to die,” my brother could not come back—this was about four weeks later. So it was me who was with my mom when she died—not all of her children, and not all of her grandchildren. I am eternally grateful that I was there. This was a woman who had written every part of her funeral. She knew exactly what she wanted us to feel. She had planned, to the nth degree, what would happen after she was gone. The other day, I found a recipe for Christmas puddings and the PIN for her credit card—she was like, “Your dad might not be able to get money.”

My mom had thought about everything, but she was not gifted with the ability to think about this. She would have taken the choice on that day, when my brothers were surrounding her. She did not die in terrible pain—I recognise what my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) is saying. She was not writhing. It was not awful. However, she should have been able to choose to have her family with her. I will vote for this Bill. I went to women’s liberation playgroup, which she set up with a load of women. She raised me to believe in a right to choose—my gosh, more than anything else in life. She would tell me what to do today.

Many people have mentioned coercion. I am a scholar of coercion, and I say this to everybody today: do not rest on your laurels thinking that, if we do nothing, people today will not be coerced to death. That will literally happen today. The idea that if we just do nothing—

[Jess Asato]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Jess Phillips]

I am not going to, because Madam Deputy Speaker has been clear.

The idea that if we do not pass the Bill today, we are going to walk out of here and women in our country will be any safer is an absolute myth. Doing nothing is not the same as acting.