Assisted dying architect Kim Leadbeater in last-ditch plea to get MPs to back assisted dying bill as vote sits on knife edge

Kim Leadbeater made a last-ditch plea to MPs to back her Bill today ahead of a crucial vote that would all but guarantee assisted suicide will be introduced to Britain.
The Labour MP said she is confident the Assisted Dying Bill has the support of enough MPs to pass tomorrow's Third Reading vote.
Assisted dying was backed by Parliament in principle during November's historic yes vote but tomorrow MPs will debate and vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in its entirety.
The Bill passed at Second Reading by a majority of 55 but it would fall at the next hurdle if just 28 MPs switched directly from voting yes to no while all others voted the same way today.
About 20 MPs have publicly indicated that they will vote a different way after seeing the details of the proposed assisted dying law, meaning it is likely to be tighter than in November.
Today Ms Leadbeater acknowledged there could be some changes in the numbers, but insisted she is confident the Bill will pass its next Commons vote and move through to the Lords.
She said: 'There might be some small movement in the middle, some people might maybe change their mind one way, others will change their mind the other way but fundamentally I don't anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded so I do feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully.'
Joined by terminally ill people and campaigners at a press conference on the eve of the vote, the Labour MP warned it could be a decade before the issue is put to Parliament again if MPs fail to vote for it today.
She said: 'We have the most robust piece of legislation in the world in front of us tomorrow, and I know that many colleagues have engaged very closely with the legislation and will make their decision based on those facts and that evidence, and that cannot be disputed.
'But we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.'
However opponents of the Bill said significant changes - including the removal of the High Court judge safeguard - mean the legislation is unfit for purpose and urged MPs to vote against it.
Former home secretary Sir James Cleverly said that MPs were promised ahead of the last vote that concerns about the safeguards in the Bill would be sorted out at committee stage, but he added: 'They weren't.'
'MPs need to vote on the bill as it is, not on how they hope it will be in the future,' he said.
Yesterday Liverpool MP Dan Carden - the leader of the Blue Labour group - became the latest MP to say he will vote against the Bill having previously abstained.
'I genuinely fear the legislation will take us in the wrong direction,' he told the Guardian. 'The values of family, social bonds, responsibilities, time and community will be diminished, with isolation, atomisation and individualism winning again.'
It comes as Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and most senior Catholic in the UK, said the Church will close Catholic hospices and care homes if MPs vote for assisted suicide.
However Dame Esther Rantzen made a plea to MPs last night, urging them to pass a Bill she said could 'transform the final days of generations in the future' and replace the current 'cruel, messy criminal law'.
The broadcaster, who is terminally ill with cancer and has been a prominent supporter of assisted dying, said: 'Please allow us terminally ill the dignity of choice over our own deaths.'

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