THE members of the House of Lords have explained they cannot pass a bill about dying because it really hits home given where they are in life. 

The peers, whose average age is 70, explained they have lived long lives, do not wish to end them and will therefore obstruct any bill that mentions death on the grounds they are against it.

The leader of the Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, said: “It’s alright for the Commons. They’re still in the first flush of youth in their late 40s. Dying’s abstract for them.

“But here? We’re got peers who were old when John Major appointed them. How are they expected to approach a bill about ending unhealthy lives in a dispassionate way, with their arteries?

“The House made a lot of amendments last time this bill came through, yes, and some of them were unworkable. But can we not feel the humanity in Viscount Chandos’s amendment ‘Would it not be preferable to first find a cure for death?’ and act on it?

“Bottom line is we don’t like death, we’re not about to help it along, and we’re certainly not legislating to make it easier. ‘Six months to live’ nonsense. These GPs just say that to get rid of you.”

Joseph Turner, MP for Torbay, said: “I was undecided but now I’m voting for the bill. Anything but end up like them.”