Dame Esther Rantzen has accused peers of “blatant sabotage” after it emerged the assisted dying bill will likely fail to become law.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will fail in May if it does not complete all its parliamentary stages before the end of the current session.
Opponents of the proposals have been accused of trying to “talk out” the legislation as it makes its way through the Lords, but they insist they are scrutinising a dangerous proposition amid concerns about coercion, disability rights and other issues.
The bill has been opposed by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, but it has the backing of the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
Dame Esther Rantzen, one of its most high-profile supporters, accused some peers of “blatant sabotage” in an appearance on Sky News.
She accused “a handful of peers” of laying 1,200 amendments, “not to scrutinise the bill, which is their job, but to block it. That’s what they wanted. A few peers, for their own reasons, have decided that they’re going to stop this going through parliament.”
She said she felt “very sad, because so many other countries around the world… have come to the same 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.
“So I’m saying to the House of Lords, how can you be so cruel, so inhumane and so undemocratic?”
She has previously written to members of the Lords urging them to “stop inventing fictitious excuses” to block the legislation.
No 10 would not be drawn on whether or not the government would support giving the bill extra time for scrutiny in the Lords.
Lord Falconer, another prominent supporter, described the current situation as a “tragedy”. But he claimed it was not the end of the road for the bill, saying it could be brought back by using a rare parliamentary procedure.
The Parliament Act allows bills backed by MPs in two successive sessions, but rejected by peers, to pass into law without the approval of the House of Lords.
Only seven bills have ever overridden the Lords in this way, including the ban on hunting in 2004.
If passed, the bill would allow adults with terminal illnesses in England and Wales who have less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death.
MPs passed it in the Commons last June, but by a narrow majority of just 24.
Lord Falconer said: “The Lords prides itself on focusing on the things that matter, and that most certainly is not what’s been going on here. The tragedy is that a small number of people in the Lords are blocking a bill that has passed in the Commons.”
He went on to say: “It’s not the end of the road, because the Parliament Act allows it to go through to the next session, and I’m sure that is what will happen.”
Meanwhile, Jersey’s States Assembly voted through legislation to legalise assisted dying.
The legislation will now go for royal assent so it can formally become law on the island.
To be eligible, someone would have to have been resident in Jersey for at least 12 months, have a voluntary, settled and informed wish to end their own life, and to be terminally ill with a life expectancy of six months, or 12 months if they have a neurodegenerative disease.
In contrast to the bill being considered at Westminster, which states the terminally ill adult must take an approved substance themselves, the Jersey legislation would allow a doctor or registered nurse to administer the lethal drugs.
Campaigners in favour of legalising assisted dying hope a service can be in place in Jersey by the end of next summer.
