Politics latest: Assisted dying bill almost certain to fail due to lack of extra debate time

Jeremy Corbyn's "The Many" faction has won a decisive victory in the first Your Party elections, and is set to become its first leader.

The former Labour leader's slate of candidates won 14 of the 24 seats on the new left-wing party's executive committee, with Zarah Sultana's "Grassroots Left" slate winning just seven.

The result means Corbyn has emerged victorious in what has been a bitter internal power struggle since the party was created last summer.

He is set to become the parliamentary leader, with Sultana also elected to the executive committee.

Turnout in the election was 25,347 people, which is 61.8% of verified members.

Corbyn pledged to work with all members of Your Party to implement a "bold vision" for the UK, saying in a statement: "I am delighted that members have voted for a mass, socialist party that takes the fight to Starmer and Farage.

"Now, the real work begins. We have a precious opportunity to unite our movement around a bold vision for this country - one that creates a more caring, equal and peaceful world for all. I look forward to working with all members to make this vision a reality.

"We are at a dangerous moment. The fear, divisiveness and racism of Reform should not be appeased. It must be opposed. There is only one way we will defeat them: by working together under a common cause of redistribution and peace.

"Together, we can provide hope to those who are fed up with inequality, disempowered by poverty and disgusted by war - and build a society that cares for each other and cares for all."

We've been reporting this morning that the assisted dying bill is almost certainly going to fail due to a lack of extra debate time.

But that doesn't mean its over for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill.

While it may not become law before the end of this parliamentary session in May, there are other ways it could still end up in the statute book eventually.

One of these relies on a little know, and even more rarely used, piece of legislation, passed a century ago.

The Parliament Act could be a way for the sponsor of the bill, Kim Leadbeater, to try again to legalise assisted dying.

This Act allows MPs to pass a private members' bill if the House of Lords reject it, by effectively by-passing peers altogether. 

To achieve this, the bill must be passed by MPs twice in two successive sessions, and a year must have elapsed. 

The Parliament Act has been used before for a number of deeply contentious issues, such as equalising the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16, in 2000.

But the Act has been used sparingly over the past century - and would no doubt lead to strong criticism from some MPs and peers.

Our chief political correspondent Jon Craig has examined whether using it is a viable route for Leadbeater - and what her other options now are.

The Metropolitan Police has apologised to the Speaker of the House of Lords, after he was incorrectly named in reports claiming he had passed information to the force that sparked the arrest of Peter Mandelson.

Lord Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, was arrested on Monday afternoon on suspicion of misconduct in public office. 

He was released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and has previously denied all the allegations.

But following his arrest, it was reported that the Lords Speaker, Michael Forsyth, had told the force that Mandelson was going to flee to the British Virgin Islands.

These reports were not dismissed by the Met, but it emerged yesterday that it was actually the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who shared this information with police. 

The force apologised to Hoyle for "inadvertently revealing information".

But this morning, Forsyth then demanded an "urgent meeting" with the Scotland Yard, to clarify why he was named and why this was not corrected.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said a short while ago: "The Met has also apologised to the Speaker of the House of Lords, following the inadvertent revealing of information into allegations of misconduct in public office."

Lawyers for Mandelson have denied the "baseless" allegation that the former diplomat was going to flee, pointing to him having already agreed to attend a voluntary interview in a fortnight's time. 

They have also asked the Met for the "evidence relied upon to justify the arrest".

Hoyle told MPs yesterday that he passed on information to the police "in good faith, as is my duty and responsibility".

The Crown dependency of Jersey has voted to legalise assisted dying, becoming the second of the British Isles to do so after the Isle of Man.

The vote in Jersey's States Assembly (parliament) was:

• 32 votes in favour
• 16 votes against

Today's vote was the final legislative stage before the bill then goes for royal assent in the UK.

This means that a person with a terminal illness "who is experiencing or is expected to experience unbearable physical suffering" and die within six months, or 12 months with certain neurodegenerative conditions, will be able to choose to end their own life.

In order to be eligible, the person will also have to have been a resident of Jersey for 12 months.

The first assisted deaths could take place there as early as next summer.

The vote comes on the day that Paste BN revealed that a proposed bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is likely to run out of time in the House of Lords and fail.

Dame Esther Rantzen has led the charge for the legalisation of assisted dying, and the news that the bill will most likely fail in the House of Lords was broken by our deputy political editor Sam Coates this morning.

He asked her on Paste BN if she believes this is the end of the road for legalisation, and she replied: "Well if you look round the world, you will see the tide for reform is rising.

"Other countries have already reformed their law. Australia is a very good example. Look what's happening in Jersey and the Isle of Man. Look what's happening in Scotland.

"I think if England and Wales are left behind because of this archaic process which enables unelected peers to block and sabotage what the Commons and the public want, I think that voices will be raised in protest, and it won't do the House of Lords any good in the long run."

Asked if legalisation has now got harder, Rantzen said: "It was always difficult because there were always lobbyists - particularly, I think, religious people who have their own beliefs, which mean that they would choose not to ask for assisted death and who want to impose those beliefs on people like me who don't share them.

"So I can't say it was always easy, but, certainly it's a shame. It's a shame because the debate [...] was done with such power, such emotion, so much experience, particularly, I think, from MPs who had their own medical experience as doctors and psychiatrists, and feel that it's time this cruel, inhumane criminal law was changed.

"And so we got the majority in the Commons, and the Lords are now sabotaging and blocking it."

She declines to blame Sir Keir Starmer for the bill's failure, saying she owes him "enormous gratitude" for ensuring it was "given proper government time for a serious debate".

We've just been speaking to broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, who herself has terminal cancer, and is a leading campaigner for legalising assisted dying.

Asked for her reaction to the news that the legislation is going to run out of time in the House of Lords, she told our presenter Gareth Barlow: "This is absolute blatant sabotage.

"This is a handful of peers putting down 1,200 amendments not to scrutinise the bill, which is their job, but to block it.

"A few peers for their own reasons have decided that they're going to stop this going through parliament, and the only way to stop them would be to invoke the Parliament Act, which has happened before, or get rid of the House of Lords - they're clearly not fit for purpose."

The Parliament Act is a century-old piece of legislation that allows the Lords to be overridden in certain circumstances to ensure the primacy of the Commons (read more on it here).

Rantzen goes on to say that the bill likely failing makes her feel "sad" because many countries around the world "have come to the sane, sensible, proper conclusion, which is if you are terminally ill and an adult, and fully competent to make your own decisions, you should have the right to die painlessly and in dignity if life becomes unbearable".

Under the law as it stands, she would not be able to tell her family if she was going to Dignitas in Switzerland for an assisted death, because they would be criminalised, which is "the last thing they need".

"So I'm saying to the House of Lords: how can you be so cruel, so inhumane, and so undemocratic," Rantzen said.

As revealed by our deputy political editor Sam Coates, the landmark assisted dying legislation is now very likely to fail.

The Private Members' Bill was tabled by Kim Leadbeater MP, and passed the House of Commons in a historic vote last year.

But it is now unlikely to pass the House of Lords before the end of the parliamentary session in May, meaning it will fail to become law.

Sam Coates explains what has happened and why:

The number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels across the UK has dropped to the lowest level for 18 months, new data shows.

At the end of 2025, there were 30,657 people seeking asylum being housed in hotels, down from a peak of 56,018 under the previous Tory government at the end of September 2023, Home Office figures reveal.

However, that is slightly higher than when Labour took office, when there were 29,561 people in government-funded hotel housing.

There were 20% fewer asylum seekers in hotels at the end of 2025 compared to the end of the previous year, the three months from September to December saw a 15% drop.

Asylum claims also fell by 4% from 104,000 to 101,000, despite a 13% rise in small boat arrivals last year, compared to 2024.

The government has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament.

Fewer visas issued last year

Last year also saw a 13% drop in the number of study, work, or family visas issued compared to 2024 - 757,000 were granted in 2025, compared to 874,000 in 2024.

Although there was a 2% rise in the number of study visas issued, there was a 30% drop in work visas and 22% drop in family visas granted.

In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: "These statistics show real progress as we restore order and control to our borders.

"We have removed nearly 60,000 illegal migrants, numbers in asylum hotels are down, law enforcement action against people smugglers is at record levels and we are bearing down on the asylum backlog.

"But we must go further. The number of people crossing the Channel is too high, and too many hotels remain in use.

"That is why the home secretary is introducing sweeping reforms to tackle the pull factors drawing illegal migrants to Britain, and we are ramping up removals of those with no right to be here."

The interim report into maternity and neonatal services across England also found that black babies are twice as likely to be stillborn than white babies, some Asian women are stereotyped as overreacting to things, and black women are deemed as more able to tolerate pain.

Speaking to Mornings With Ridge And Frost, investigation lead, Baroness Amos said: "Undoubtedly there is systematic racism, which then is experienced through individual behaviours.

"It is part of culture and leadership, and I have to say that I and members of the team were quite shock at some of what we were told."

She pointed out that this is not the first time this has been raised, but "the kind of systemic change to deal with this is still lacking".

These failures are leading black women to "deliberately make choices that they know may put them in harms way", such as choosing a home birth over a hospital birth when they have pre-existing conditions that would make the latter safer.

"This should not be happened. This is 2026 - we should have a situation where women and families are able to make the choices that are right for them," Amos said.

Asked if Britain is a safe country to give birth, the peer said it "absolutely is" in some place, but in others it is not - and care could be "patchy" even within the same NHS trust.

She concluded: "Of course it's safe - there are many instances of safe, good practice out there.

"But when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong, and it should not be happening."

Have you been affected by poor maternity care? Email maternitystories@sky.uk

An interim report into maternity and neonatal services across England has uncovered shocking allegations of racism, bullying, crumbling infrastructure, and births in undignified circumstances.

The investigation lead, Baroness Amos, has been speaking to Mornings With Ridge And Frost, and she explained that what they have heard from the more than 400 families they have spoken to so far "have been borne out by the visits that we have done, the staff that we have spoken to, the leaders that we have spoken to".

She went on: "There are many families that are looking for accountability and for justice, and I completely understand that. They've been harmed, they've been traumatised, they have lost their babies.

"What we are trying to do is look as deep as we can, as wide as we can, and come up with some recommendations that will make immediate change."

Some families told the investigation that baby deaths were being misclassified as stillbirths because coroners cannot legally investigate them.

Amos explained: "The very strong feeling from families is if they have felt a sign of life, but they have been told that there [was] not, this is because a trust does not want to go through having a coroner's inquest."

Asked if the law should change, the peer said she is not sure that as an investigation team, they are "qualified to be able to make that as a recommendation", but they are examining what they can recommend in that area.

Have you been affected by poor maternity care? Email maternitystories@sky.uk