00:01yeah is it so presumably it's just uh like a pre-record is that what i'm doing it is yeah
00:04it's a pre-record which we'll put into the show later today okay and am i speaking to you or
00:09somebody else you'll be speaking to myself yeah marvellous sorry what was your name i didn't
00:13catch up earlier nailer nailer hiya nice to meet you lovely to meet you too no we have a nose
00:18our
00:18first time how how long have you been at kmtv since november oh right brilliant are you enjoying
00:25it so far oh i'm loving it yeah it's so good yeah i know it's really good and it's such
00:29a
00:29such a great feeder for bbc and itv and everything it's it's so nice knowing that so many people who
00:36go through what you're doing have gone on and have like fantastic journalism careers absolutely yeah
00:40it is reassuring but i'm i'm enjoying my time here at the moment as it is anyway and kent is
00:45such a
00:45dynamic patch to cover yeah i mean there's a there's a lot going on a lot going on in kent
00:50and
00:51midway absolutely can't fault it right um are we are we recording perfect so we start recording so
00:59are you happy to get going with it uh yeah just just the flag though that has um cut out
01:05or sped
01:06up a little bit a few times i don't know if that's probably the parliamentary connection or anything
01:10like that but if that's a problem let me know okay thanks um the gallery will let me know if
01:15that's
01:15an issue great perfect so thank you so much for joining us today lauren but first of all
01:22why are you introducing a bill in parliament that was already introduced last year so the reason that
01:28i'm introducing it is that unfortunately uh although it was passed by the mps in the house of commons
01:33when it got to the house of lords stage a very small minority of peers um proposed hundreds of
01:42amendments and were able to talk out the bills there wasn't enough parliamentary time for the lords to vote
01:49on it so the bill fell um in the last parliamentary session and now that we've had a new king
01:56speech
01:56and we're in a new parliamentary session uh i was uh fortunate enough to become second in uh the new
02:03private members bill ballot and i decided that um as much you know i'm a big supporter of assisted dying
02:11um and i also think it's a really important point that when legislation is supported by the house of
02:19commons that it's given the opportunity to go through all of the stages uh before a final decision
02:25is made about whether it becomes law and i really wanted to make sure that that process is followed and
02:32that those people particularly who will be personally affected and are very much wanting this legislation to go
02:38through have the opportunity uh to see that legislative process go go all the way through
02:43i see and the house of lords exists to scrutinize this legislation in detail so why do you think
02:49re-inducing this bill to experienced lawmakers who have already tabled this legislation is a good idea
02:58so i i want to allow them to to finish the job that they started which which i know a
03:03lot of them
03:04want to do um they didn't have the opportunity to go through the full scrutiny and and like you say
03:10there's a huge amount of experience uh in that second chamber they play a really really important
03:16role and and by reintroducing this bill i'm giving them the opportunity to uh fulfill that role
03:22and and to finish that work that they started um it means that things will just go through in the
03:26in in in the usual way um uh and the you know the house of commons will still have the
03:33opportunity
03:33at the end of the day to decide whether it ultimately becomes law or not once it returns
03:37from the lords after they've amended it considered it scrutinized it in the proper way
03:43well we say well the house of lords has said that the bill remains unsafe and flawed as we've just
03:48mentioned the royal college of psychiatrists themselves say that the bill is unsafe and flawed
03:52do you think at the moment that it's currently hot like underbaked and why are we introducing
03:56the bill at the point where it is underbaked so common
04:02sorry sorry you cut out a little bit there so did i cut out sorry yeah sorry for me i
04:08don't know
04:08if it was for the other lot but it it sort of got truncated into two different things so could
04:13you sorry could you just repeat that for me i think i got what you said but i think it'd
04:16be helpful
04:16to hear it again of course well i was saying that the house of lords say that the bill remains
04:20unsafe and flawed and even the royal college of psychiatrists say the bill is unsafe and flawed
04:25as well and there is concern over the you know pressuring people to use assisted dying if the
04:30bill was to go in place so with many would say that the that the bill is underbaked so why
04:35are you
04:36putting it in now when many have that kind of thought so the house of commons uh sent it to
04:42the
04:42house of lords uh following a really uh really robust scrutiny process so hundreds of hours of scrutiny
04:49line by line scrutiny of the legislation and at the end of the men allowed it to go into the
04:56house
04:56of lords and because it conducted an independent assessment um which tested that the bill was
05:02workable that it was enforceable and it was going to be effective so the legislation passed from the
05:07house of commons is good strong legislation with appropriate safeguards that were strengthened
05:14throughout the process um that doesn't mean that it doesn't need to change and that there aren't
05:19changes that even uh lord falconer the the sort of leading peer um who's helping uh what helped kim
05:26and will help me uh through this next process even he says you know there there are some changes that
05:30he would like to make so what this is about is allowing the peers that that operate very effectively
05:37in the house of lords the ability to scrutinize legislation in a normal way like like they do every day
05:42and you have previously described this matter as a matter of democracy but your use of the parliament
05:48act means that these bills will go through um through to the house of lords and without the
05:55approval of consent of the house of lords that doesn't sound very democratic to me so so that there's
06:02a bit of confusion there so so the parliament act is something that exists in in law um precisely just
06:09so that the lords couldn't do what they did last time which was talk out a bill that had the
06:15support
06:15uh and had been voted on in the democratically elected chamber so i have absolutely no intention
06:22uh i'm not expecting at all to have to use the parliament's act there is no need for it to
06:28be used
06:28if peers are willing to just do the the really important job that they're there to do which is to
06:34scrutinize legislation passed by the house of commons and a lot of people are in agreement that
06:40the assisted dying bill should go ahead so should lawmakers decide on a life and death issue on
06:45popularity itself or is the parliament's role to weigh these concerns that we've mentioned earlier
06:50on in our conversation even when these concerns may be unpopular
06:55so um a majority uh view in this country and in my own constituency polling has shown
07:02that people in general support a version of assisted dying um i always said that i i i did on
07:08principle
07:09before i became an mp um as long as the safeguards were were robust and and they absolutely are i
07:16think
07:16they've been strengthened throughout the scrutiny in the house of commons and uh kim led a better who
07:21who led the bill last time um you know took on a lot of those concerns and and listened to
07:26a lot
07:26of people who were opponents and addressed those concerns through amendments to the legislation before
07:32we finally voted on it in the house of commons and what i would say is this is not about
07:37forcing
07:37anybody to do anything it is about offering a choice and there are robust safeguards a panel of people
07:44two doctors opinions psychiatrists are involved who will be making sure that there is no uh coercion and
07:51that people are making a free and informed choice with only people who are aged over 18 they have
08:00been diagnosed with a terminal illness and they have been given only six months to live
08:05and it is it is it is all about giving those people a choice uh many of whom uh you
08:11know i've spoken to
08:12who know that they might be in a situation where they might need to use this legislation future
08:16um who are in a lot of pain um and and and and are very fearful about the pain and
08:24the experiences
08:25that they may have towards the end um or don't have the money to go to dignitas they don't they're
08:31worried about their family uh you know supporting them maybe if they did have the money to to go to
08:36dignitas um and being criminalized if they came back and so so what this is about is giving people
08:42a choice that's going to offer them uh uh the kind of dignified end that i know many of them
08:48um you
08:49know would prefer i see and some opponents may argue that parliament should instead be focusing on
08:55nhs pressures and improving the palliative care rather than assisted dying so why should this remain
09:00a priority now so i mean absolutely i agree with that and that is a priority for the labour government
09:06we
09:06have invested uh or committed uh over 30 billion pounds into the nhs uh the uh the care minister
09:15uh stephen kinnick is also conducted a review into how we can improve palliative care as part of the nhs
09:2210-year improvement plan um and i absolutely support that uh these these processes assisted dying and
09:29improving palliative care they are not mutually exclusive we should be able to do both and we can do both
09:36and uh and and that's really what we need to be focusing on and i will be as arguing as
09:41strongly
09:41for improved palliative care as i will uh uh for for for more dignified um legislation for people um
09:50that will that might be covered by um the terminal adults bill that i'm proposing well thank you so
09:57much for joining us today lauren okay brilliant thank you very much thank you so much well it's lovely to
10:04speak to you and i hope you enjoy the rest of your day
10:06you
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