Afternoon summary
Chris Parry, the Reform UK mayoral candidate who suggested David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean, has apologised for his “clumsily worded” remark. (See 2.49pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Courts should make the decision on whether to grant an assisted death, a top barrister has told parliament, as peers continued their line-by-line scrutiny of the controversial legislation. In its reports on today’s Lords debate on the assisted dying bill, PA Media says:
A previous draft of the bill included a high court judge safeguard, but this was dropped in favour of a three-member panel featuring a social worker, psychiatrist and a legal professional.
Lord Carlile of Berriew argued a court-based process would “provide confidence-inspiring judgment in this important and difficult new area of the law”.
But another leading KC, Lord Pannick, said the court backlog means this would “build in delays” for people who have less than six months to live and the decision-making panel set out in the Bill is preferable, due to the “range of expertise” it provides.
Labour former minister Lord Falconer, who is shepherding the bill through the Lords, said a multi-disciplinary panel was “safer” than the proposed change.
