Assisted dying campaigners say dreams of peaceful death were shattered after 'democracy was hijacked'

Campaigners broke down sobbing in despair after the assisted dying bill was voted down, as their “dreams and hopes of a peaceful death” were shattered, saying "democracy has been hijacked".

Campaigners, all dressed in pink, stood outside the House of Commons hugging and in floods tears after hearing MPs had voted against the assisted dying bill by 16 votes. It came as a hammer blow to campaigners after a two-year push to change the law.

There were gasps and cheers inside Parliament as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was voted down by 286 votes to 270, in a result that almost certainly scuppers hopes of a law change until after the next general election . But outside on Parliament Square, campaigners stood in stunned silence as the news came through. They then slammed MPs for allowing a small handful of peers to ‘cheat and hijack democracy’ by forcing the bill out with more than 1,000 amendments.

One woman, whose mum went to Dignitas to escape a painful death, bent over double, in grief. She had only moments earlier been talking about how she jumped for joy in the same spot in June 2025, when the bill was passed by MPs by 23 votes.

Widow Louise Shackleton, 59, who travelled to Dignitas with her husband Antony almost two years ago, comforted fellow campaigners Sophie Blake, Joshua Cook and Jenny Carruthers.

She said: “That’s exactly what religion does, cheating and lying! Democracy has been cheated and hijacked. These three people are terminally ill and my husband went to Switzerland and he had to die abroad.

“These people should not have to travel to a foreign country to have a peaceful, loving calm death. If this is what MPs are about, shame on you! We are all completely devastated but we will regroup. We will fight for three quarters of the population to have their voices heard, that’s how many people wanted this bill.”

Terminally ill Sophie Blake, 53, with tears streaming down her face, said: “Terminally ill people are still going to suffer as they die. And 650 people will still take their own lives every single year because they don’t have a choice.

“This was never about our voices, they never heard our voices. They talked about endless hypotheticals. All we wanted was to take control at the end of our lives, that’s all we wanted. We never wanted to take anything away from anyone else.

“They’ve taken away our choice to live in peace. Most people can’t afford £15,000 to go abroad, most people don’t want to go and die alone, Most people don’t want to risk their family being criminalised. They have denied all of us a peaceful death.”

Foreigner semi-pro rugby player Joshua Cook, 35, from West Yorkshire, said: "There is no palliative care option for the way that I will die, which is choking on my own saliva. That is what Huntington’s will take me to, I will choke to death.”

Joshua’s own mother Lisa, who had the same disease, had campaigned for assisted dying for more than a decade before taking her own life.

“Twenty years I’ve been campaigning," he said. "Others campaigning for change, I’ve watched all of them go.