It’s the most controversial battle over a private members’ bill in parliament for nearly 60 years.
Not since David Steel’s 1967 Abortion Act has a piece of legislation been so potentially consequential.
So don’t expect Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to enjoy a smooth passage on to the statute book.
The potential for dirty tricks, delays and wrecking tactics by opponents during the long parliamentary process is enormous.
In fact, at the 11th hour, a group of MPs opposed to the bill have this week launched a last-minute bid to derail the bill, by tabling a wrecking amendment.
Back in the ’60s, it took Steel, then the baby of the House in his 20s before later becoming Liberal Party leader, 18 months of battling to get his bill through parliament.
During that time, he endured sack loads of abusive hate mail, threats of violence and attempts by opponents in parliament to delay and talk out his bill.
Crucially, a sympathetic Labour home secretary, Roy Jenkins, with whom Steel later formed the Liberal-SDP Alliance, gave the bill vital extra time to complete its stages.
But this time Kim Leadbeater could face an even tougher battle to overcome opposition to her assisted dying bill than David Steel’s abortion fight in the 1960s.
For a start, Sir Keir Starmer’s government has got itself into a mess. Yes, it’s a free vote, but while the PM insists the government is neutral, the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, is against the bill and ministers are split.
There are claims that Ms Leadbeater was initially encouraged by No. 10 to promote assisted dying, despite never having campaigned on it previously, after she topped the private members bill ballot.
But it’s suggested the Downing Street machine, led by chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, now wants to dump the bill because of fears it could paralyse and overwhelm the government for at least a year.
Shenanigans and parliamentary dirty tricks
So what could go wrong for Ms Leadbeater and her controversial bill? The answer is… a lot, starting with a potentially highly-charged, emotional and unpredictable second reading debate on Friday.
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What is assisted dying?
Firstly, it’s a big bill, running to 59 pages and 43 clauses. That’s very long for a private members’ bill (PMB), which are often just a few short and simple clauses.
That plays into the hands of opponents, who claim a five-hour debate on a Friday is grossly inadequate for proper scrutiny.
The wrecking amendment tabled this week “declines to give a second reading” to the bill because of insufficient debate and scrutiny and calls for an independent review and public consultation.
Secondly, there aren’t usually time limits on speeches for PMBs, but there may be this time. It’s estimated that up to 150 MPs have applied to speak, which would mean two-minute speeches!
But both Sir Keir and the commons leader, Lucy Powell, have so far flatly rejected calls from MPs for more time to debate the bill, a refusal that could persuade some doubters to vote against the bill.
Read more:
Cabinet split over assisted dying
What does the assisted dying bill propose?
Britain’s longest serving MPs, Labour left-winger Diane Abbott and Thatcherite Tory Sir Edward Leigh have claimed it’s being rushed, which puts vulnerable people at risk.
Last week Sir Edward introduced an anti-assisted dying ten-minute rule bill backed by Ms Abbot and other strong opponents of Ms Leadbeater’s bill: Rachael Maskell, Sir John Hayes, Danny Kruger, Sir Christopher Chope, Sir Julian Lewis, Lincoln Jopp, Martin Vickers, Dame Meg Hillier, Saqib Bhatti, Helen Grant and Sir Roger Gale.
It was a warning of trouble ahead. There’s a real threat of shenanigans and parliamentary dirty tricks by opponents. Scores of worthy pieces of legislation have been killed off by Commons old lags who loathe PMBs.
Thirdly, this tactic, known as filibustering, is to make long, rambling speeches – often lasting for two hours or more – to “talk out” a bill, ensuring that time runs out and it can’t be put to a vote to allow it to progress.
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The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater tabled the bill
Sir Chistopher, another veteran Tory Thatcherite and one of the Leadbeater bill’s leading opponents, is the most notorious killer of PMBs. Even his fellow Conservative MPs claim he is a parliamentary dinosaur.
Bills he has blocked include a pardon for Alan Turing, banning wild animals in circuses, upskirting, protection for police dogs and horses, protecting girls from female genital mutilation and making abducting cats a criminal offence.
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Details of The Terminally Ill Adults Bill revealed.
The only way for the proposer or supporter of a PMB to thwart the wrecking tactic of filibustering is to stand up and bellow: “My Speaker, I beg to move that the question be now put!”
It’s called a closure motion and requires the support of 100 MPs, which Ms Leadbeater should be able to muster. But failure to prevent a PMB being talked out is a disaster.
That’s because a bill that fails to get a second reading on its allotted day – even if was No. 1 in the ballot, as Ms Leadbeater’s was – goes to the back of the queue for PMBs, often months ahead, and is probably doomed.
Fourthly, even if Ms Leadbeater’s bill does get a second reading, her troubles could be only just beginning. Because it’s such a big bill, the scope for amendments during its line-by-line committee stage is endless.
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And then, fifthly, there’s the House of Lords, full of pesky bishops, distinguished medics, pedantic lawyers and procedural bores. That’s likely to be a long and tortuous process for the assisted dying bill too.
Senior peers have told Sky News they believe the bill will struggle to get through the Lords, because there’s strong support for leading opponent Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, the Paralympic champion.
So even if it does finally become law, this controversial legislation could face a painful journey along the way, a journey that could indeed easily take 18 months.
Ask 86-year-old David Steel about what happened with his life-and-death legislation more than 60 years ago.
Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, recently said that he expects a crypto market bill to be passed into law by August 2025.
The chairman also noted the Senate Banking Committee’s advancement of the GENIUS Act, a comprehensive stablecoin regulatory bill, in March 2025, as evidence that the committee prioritizes crypto policy. In a statement to Fox News, Scott said:
“We must innovate before we regulate — allowing innovation in the digital asset space to happen here at home is critical to American economic dominance across the globe.”
Scott’s timeline for a crypto market structure bill lines up with expectations from Kristin Smith, CEO of the crypto industry advocacy group Blockchain Association, of market structure and stablecoin legislation being passed into law by August.
The Trump administration has emphasized that comprehensive crypto regulations are central to its plans for protecting the value of the US dollar and establishing the country as a global leader in digital assets by attracting investment into US-based crypto firms.
Senator Tim Scott highlights the Senate Banking Committee’s goals and accomplishments in 2025. Source: Fox News
Related: Atkins becomes next SEC chair: What’s next for the crypto industry
Support for comprehensive crypto regulations is bipartisan
US lawmakers and officials expect clear crypto policies to be established and signed into law sometime in 2025 with bipartisan support from Congress.
Speaking at the Digital Assets Summit in New York City, on March 18, Democrat Representative Ro Khanna said he expects both the market structure and stablecoin bills to pass this year.
The Democrat lawmaker added that there are about 70-80 other representatives in the party who understand the importance of passing clear digital asset regulations in the United States.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, pictured left, President Donald Trump in the center, and crypto czar David Sacks, pictured right, at the White House Crypto Summit. Source: The White House
Khanna emphasized that fellow Democrats support dollar-pegged stablecoins due to the role of dollar tokens in expanding demand for the US dollar worldwide through the internet.
Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, also spoke at the conference and predicted that stablecoin legislation would be passed into law within 60 days.
Hines highlighted that establishing US dominance in the digital asset space is a goal with widespread bipartisan support in Washington DC.
Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025
The US Social Security Administration (SSA) will move all public communications to the X social media platform amid sweeping workforce cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by X owner Elon Musk.
According to anonymous sources who spoke with WIRED, the government agency will no longer issue its customary letters and press releases to communicate changes to the public, instead relying on X as its primary form of public-facing communication.
The shift comes as the SSA downsizes its workforce from 57,000 employees to roughly 50,000 to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. The agency issued this statement in February 2025:
“SSA has operated with a regional structure consisting of 10 offices, which is no longer sustainable. The agency will reduce the regional structure in all agency components down to four regions. The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient.”
Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has accused the Social Security system of distributing billions of dollars in wrongful payments, a claim echoed by the White House. Musk’s comments sparked intense debate about the future of the retirement program and sustainable government spending.
Source: Elon Musk
Related: Musk says he found ‘magic money computers’ printing money ‘out of thin air’
DOGE targets US government agencies in efficiency push
The Department of Government Efficiency is an unofficial government agency tasked with identifying and curbing allegedly wasteful public spending through budget and personnel cuts.
In March, DOGE began probing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and gained access to its internal systems, including data repositories.
SEC officials signaled their cooperation with DOGE and said the regulatory agency would work closely with it to provide any relevant information requested.
Musk and Trump discuss curbing public spending and eliminating government waste. Source: The White house
DOGE also proposed slashing the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) workforce by 20%. The workforce reduction could impact up to 6,800 IRS employees and be implemented by May 15 — exactly one month after 2024 federal taxes are due.
Musk’s and the DOGE’s proposals for sweeping spending cuts are not limited to slashing budgets and reducing the size of the federal workforce.
DOGE is reportedly exploring blockchain to curb public spending by placing the entire government budget onchain to promote accountability and transparency.
Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle
United States President Donald Trump has exempted an array of tech products including, smartphones, chips, computers, and select electronics from tariffs, giving the tech industry a much-needed respite from trade pressures.
According to the US Customs and Border Protection, storage cards, modems, diodes, semiconductors, and other electronics were also excluded from the ongoing trade tariffs.
“Large-cap technology companies will ultimately come out ahead when this is all said and done,” The Kobeissi letter wrote in an April 12 X post.
US Customs and Border Protection announces tariff exemptions on select tech products. Source: US Customs and Border Protection
The tariff relief will take the pressure off of tech stocks, which were one of the biggest casualties of the trade war. Crypto markets are correlated with tech stocks and could also rally as risk appetite increases on positive trade war headlines.
Following news of the tariff exemptions, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) broke past $85,000 on April 12, a signal that crypto markets are already responding to the latest macroeconomic development.
Related: Billionaire investor would ‘not be surprised’ if Trump postpones tariffs
Markets hinge on Trump’s every word during macroeconomic uncertainty
President Trump walked back the sweeping tariff policies on April 9 by initiating a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs and lowering tariff rates to 10% for countries that did not respond with counter-tariffs on US goods.
Bitcoin surged by 9% and the S&P 500 surged by over 10% on the same day that Trump issued the tariff pause.
Macroeconomic trader Raoul Pal said the tariff policies were a negotiation tool to establish a US-China trade deal and characterized the US administration’s trade rhetoric as “posturing.”
Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that exempting select tech products from import tariffs would not reduce bond yields or further the Trump administration’s goal of lowering interest rates.
Yield on the 10-year US government bond spikes following sweeping trade policies from the Trump administration. Source: TradingView
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury Bond shot up to a local high of approximately 4.5% on April 11 as bond investors reacted to the macroeconomic uncertainty of a protracted trade war.
“The concession just given to China for tech exports won’t reverse the trend of rates going higher. Confidence in US bonds and the US Dollar has been eroding for years and won’t stop now,” Keiser wrote on April 12.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
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