Is Shabana Mahmood the ‘Maggie Thatcher of the left?’

The ink was barely dry on Shabana Mahmood’s letter of appointment as home secretary by Keir Starmer when speculation began that she could follow him as Labour leader one day.

Until her promotion, little was known about Mahmood, 44 and the MP for Birmingham Ladywood. So let’s fill in some of the gaps.

Her father owned a small shop, she attended state schools, was awarded a second-class degree at Oxford University, was elected to run a prestigious student body, and qualified as a barrister.

She became an MP, served in her party’s Treasury team before rising quickly through ministerial ranks, and is renowned at Westminster for her no-nonsense approach and working 16-hour days.

She takes a small-“c” conservative stance on social and ethical issues, is devoutly religious, has won praise from Jewish leaders for opposing antisemitism, supports tough action on immigration, and is less slavishly pro-European than her deeply unpopular party leader.

Moreover, unlike Starmer, she has a clear sense of direction and , in her mid-40s , finds herself being talked about as a future leader and saviour of her party and the country.

That is a summary of Mahmood’s impressive personal and political career so far. And remarkably, every single detail fits the CV of another notable female politician: Margaret Thatcher.

Which is why some are describing Mahmood as the “Thatcher of the left”. On first hearing, it sounds implausible, impertinent even.

Mahmood is a Labour MP, a Muslim with Pakistani parents, and represents a parliamentary constituency with one of the highest unemployment rates in the West Midlands and where most constituents are non-white. She has been fighting the Tories for much of her life.

Thatcher was a Conservative MP from a strict Methodist background who represented prosperous Finchley in north London and led her party to three crushing election victories over Labour.

But look deeper and the comparison starts to make more sense. Mahmood has been made home secretary to show the toughness that predecessor Yvette Cooper lacked, close migrant hotels and stop the boats – and see off the threat from Nigel Farage and Reform in the process.

It is a tall order, and more significantly, represents a dramatic shift to the right by Starmer. Mahmood stands for a more down-to-earth type of socialism than Starmer and his well-heeled, radical, trendy set in north London.

She has a different personal style too. Unlike Starmer, she refused to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet because of her political principles.

When the reserved Starmer talked lately of flying the red and white flag of St George in his Downing Street flat, it prompted sceptical groans. When Mahmood speaks of her patriotism, a near taboo on the hard left, it rings with authenticity.

She has declared a “natural affinity for the faith, family and flag element of Blue Labour”, an organisation which claims the party has lost touch with its working-class roots. “If you were trying to put me in a box , you would say social, small-‘c’ conservative,” she added.

Counter-intuitively, her Muslim faith is seen as an asset in her ability to get to grips with the migrant crisis, a large proportion of whom are Muslim.

Mahmood displays none of the timidity of Labour politicians who tiptoe around this delicate issue.

“I just don’t know why we’ve got ourselves in a tangle talking about migration control on the left of politics, because it is pretty fundamental to the way a lot of our voters think,” she has said with characteristic bluntness.

Similarly, her religious views guide her unabashedly robust position on a series of moral issues that place her closer to Farage than to many of her fellow Labour MPs.

These include her support for JK Rowling’s stance on the gender wars; challenging the way LGBTQ is taught in some schools; criticising her own government for failing to tackle the grooming gang scandal; reportedly contemplating watering down Britain’s membership of the European Court of Human Rights, and, most provocative of all, saying she would consider ordering the castration of some sex offenders.

One of her most prominent cheerleaders, Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of Blue Labour, explains Mahmood’s appeal thus: “She is just a completely normal human being, which is remarkable within Labour… a normal person who just hates mugging, bullying, phone theft. She thinks it is disgusting. She believes it is her moral duty to serve her country.”

Doubtless her shopkeeper father would approve of her law-and-order approach: he used to keep a cricket bat below the till to deter would-be shoplifters. They are a close family: the home secretary still lives next door to her parents.

Ex-Labour minister Lord (Tom) Watson, a close ally of Gordon Brown, is another fan.

“She is consistent and relentless in her brief. She turns up early to work every day, never fails to finish a (red ministerial) box , and never puts off a problem. For her, parliamentary recesses and weekends are just an opportunity for more work.”

He could be talking about Thatcher, who reputedly got by on four hours’ sleep a night and regularly challenged terrified ministers on the minutiae of their own portfolio.

It is not a comparison that embarrasses Mahmood, who names Thatcher as one of her heroines. She says she admires her for the way she “broke the mould”, rose to the top in a “patriarchal system”, and for “representing women”.

Tellingly, Mahmood was recently the subject of a flattering profile in the right-wing Spectator magazine written by its editor, former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove.

He called her the “politically sharpest” member of Starmer’s Cabinet and praised her for possessing the “steeliness” of “Iron Lady” Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead her party half a century ago after the man who put her in his cabinet, Tory prime minister Edward Heath, lost power through a dismal failure of leadership in an economic and wider political national crisis.

Starmer will be hoping Mahmood and her Thatcherite-tinged “Blue Labour” beliefs save him from a similar fate, rather than repeating history.

Pictured: Total ‘Blood Moon’ lunar eclipse in the UK

The country’s stargazers had the chance to see the total lunar eclipse on Sunday evening as a “Blood Moon” was visible from parts of the UK.

For the first time since 2022, the UK witnessed the moon turning a deep, dark red as the Earth passed directly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow across the lunar surface.

According to the Met Office, the moon took on a reddish hue because it was illuminated by light that had passed through the Earth’s atmosphere and had been bent back towards the moon by refraction, scattering blue light and allowing red wavelengths to reach the moon.

Where skies were clear, the eclipse was visible at around 7.30pm.

The eclipse was visible to the naked eye, and unlike solar eclipses, was safe to view directly as the moon’s reflected light is not as bright.

However, the rare spectacle was more visible in many other parts of the world, including parts of Africa and the Middle East.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth moves between the moon and the sun, obscuring the latter and turning it dark.

The light that reaches the lunar surface is scattered by the Earth, so that it appears red to people watching from the ground.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich said the next opportunity to see a lunar eclipse in the UK will be on 28 August 2026. But that is only a partial eclipse, unlike this weekend’s total one.

Nigel Farage admits he was wrong to say he had bought Clacton house

Nigel Farage has admitted he was wrong to have said he bought a house in Clacton last year, with the property in fact owned by his partner.

The Reform UK leader said he misspoke when claiming to have purchased a property in his constituency before the general election.

“I should have said ‘we’. All right? My partner bought it, so what?” he told Sky News.

Had Mr Farage bought the house, he would have been liable for thousands of pounds in stamp duty payments on the purchase of a second home.

It comes after Angela Rayner was forced to resign as deputy prime minister for the underpayment of stamp duty on the purchase of a flat in Hove.

When Mr Farage was initially asked last November about how much time he actually spent in Clacton, he told Sky News he had bought a house in a bid to see off criticism of himself as absent.

He said: “I’ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I’ll be living there in – is that good enough?… I’ve bought a house in Clacton. What more do you want me to do?”

He had also told LBC he bought the Clacton house, adding: “That’s why you can see me out, often on a Saturday morning, out buying the essentials – limes, tonic, all that sort of thing.”

But, asked about the purchase after Reform UK’s conference, Mr Farage said: “I should have said ‘we’. All right? My partner bought it, so what?”

He said it was “her money” and “her asset”.

“I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there.”

He added: “I should have rephrased it. I didn’t want … to put her in the public domain.”

Mr Farage’s deputy Richard Tice had earlier said the party leader’s tax affairs are “irrelevant” to voters.

Questions about the purchase have resurfaced after Angela Rayner resigned on Friday over underpaying stamp duty on a seaside flat she bought this year.

Mr Farage said the resignation of the deputy prime minister “screams to entitlement” during his speech to the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham.

Mr Tice, the party deputy, was asked on Saturday whether Mr Farage would be transparent about his tax affairs and address questions over his partner buying the Clacton home.

He told Times Radio: “I’m pleased to confirm I’m not his tax adviser. You’ll have to speak to them.

“It’s irrelevant to what voters are concentrating on, which is our messaging, which is the message of hope. We can get out of this nightmare that we’re in.”

Mr Farage has denied the arrangement had saved tax, telling The Mirror it was a “disgusting allegation” that is “unfair and untrue”.

Separately, Mr Farage has also reportedly been using a private company to reduce how much tax he pays on his GB News media appearances and other work outside being an MP.

He has declared payments of more than £300,000 in the past year for hosting a show on the channel.

The Guardian reported that he diverts money earned from the show into his company, Thorn in the Side Ltd, meaning he paid only 25 per cent corporation tax on profits rather than 40%.

The use of personal service companies is not illegal but has been criticised in recent years.

Mr Farage told Sky News he had “massive outgoings” and employed contractors when asked if he was using the company to pay less tax.

“No, I’m using it legitimately because I run a company that has overheads,” he said.

Asked if he paid less tax than he would if he was not doing it through a company, he said: “And there would be fewer people employed if I didn’t have a company”.

A spokesperson for Mr Farage told The Guardian: “Thorn in the Side Ltd has traded for 15 years and has a variety of interests. It renders the services of several contractors and is a properly functioning company.”

Erin Patterson sentenced to 33 years in jail for mushroom murders

An Australian mother convicted of murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband by poisoning them with death cap mushrooms has been sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years.

Erin Patterson, 50, was found guilty in July of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, with a lunch of beef Wellington pastries laced with foraged death cap mushrooms.

She was also convicted of attempting to murder Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in a hospital.

Justice Christopher Beale told the court the Victoria state Supreme Court Patterson’s crimes involved an enormous betrayal of trust.

“Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony,” Justice Beale said.

She will serve life sentence concurrently with a 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of the sole survivor, pastor Ian Wilkinson, whose wife, Heather, was among the guests who died in the hospital.

Patterson was found guilty after an 11-week long trial for murder of the family of her estranged husband, Simon.

Patterson denied poisoning them deliberately and contended that she had no reason to murder her beloved, elderly in-laws. But the jury rejected her defence that the inclusion of toxic mushrooms in the meal was a terrible accident.

The hearing was broadcast live from Melbourne’s Supreme Court, reflecting intense public interest in the case that gripped Australia, spawning multiple podcasts and documentaries.

Sentencing Patterson, Justice Beale said her offences involved “substantial premeditation” and an “elaborate cover-up” after she realised her initial lies would not work.

“I am satisfied by July 16, 2023, when you unusually invited Simon, his parents, and aunt and uncle to a lunch without the children to discuss your non-existent medical issue, you did so with the intention of killing them all,” Justice Beale said.

“The devastating impact of your crimes is not limited to your direct victims. Your crimes have harmed a great many people,” he said at the sentencing hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne.

“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”

Both prosecution and defence lawyers had agreed that a life sentence was an appropriate punishment for the then-50-year-old on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

But defence lawyers had asked for Patterson to become eligible for parole after serving 30 years. Prosecutors had argued she should never be considered for parole because she did not deserve the court’s mercy.

Speaking after the judgment, Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor in the crime, thanked the investigators for their work.

“They brought to light the truth of what happened to three good people. We are grateful for the truth that brought this to light. I’m also very grateful for the kindness and compassion they showed us, me and my family, throughout the process.

“We’re also grateful for the staff of the various public health services that played an important role in dealing with the aftermath of the lunch.”

Patterson was initially charged with attempting to murder her husband by inviting him to lunch in July 2023. He had accepted the invitation then cancelled.

She was also initially charged three counts of attempting to murder him on three occasions around Victoria between November 2021 and September 2022.

Prosecutors dropped all charges relating to the husband before her trial began in April.

At a pre-sentencing hearing last month, Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy urged Justice Beale to impose a non-parole period on the sentence, meaning she would have the possibility of eventual release, as her “notorious” reputation would make prison more onerous for her than the average offender.

A corrections officer previously told the court Patterson was being kept in isolation for her own safety, and was permitted contact with only one other prisoner who is in jail for terrorism offences.

In his sentencing remarks, Beale said he had taken Patterson’s isolation into account.

“You have effectively been held in continuous solitary confinement for the last 15 months, and at the very least there is a substantial chance that for your protection you will continue to be held in solitary confinement for years to come,” Justice Beale said.

Including time already served, Patterson will have just turned 82 before she can be considered for release.

The prosecution argued Patterson should never be released.

Patterson, who maintained her innocence throughout the trial and said the poisonings were accidental, has 28 days to appeal her sentence. She has not indicated whether she will do so.

Patterson’s non-parole period of 33 years is the longest ever for a woman convicted of murder in Victoria.

Only one woman in Australia has ever received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Australia does not have the death penalty.

The deaths devastated the close-knit rural community of Korumburra, where all the victims lived.

The court received a total of 28 victim impact statements, of which seven were read publicly at last month’s hearings.

Mr Wilkinson, a pastor at a local church and the sole surviving guest of the lunch, told last month’s hearing that the death of his wife had left him bereft.“It’s a truly horrible thought to live with that somebody could decide to take her life. I only feel half alive without her,” he said, breaking down in tears as he delivered his victim impact statement.

The extraordinary media interest in the case, which gripped Australia for much of the 10-week trial, had been traumatic for the family, Erin Patterson‘s estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but declined – said at the same hearing.

Journalists and television crews from around the world descended on the town of Morwell when the trial began in April, with millions of Australians following proceedings live through one of several popular daily podcasts.

For the first time in its history, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed a television camera into the court to broadcast Beale’s sentencing remarks live due to overwhelming public interest.

The trial has already inspired several books, documentaries, and a drama series, “Toxic”, set to air on state broadcaster ABC.

New weight-loss pill could reach UK by next year, says Mounjaro boss

A groundbreaking weight-loss pill made by the manufacturer of Mounjaro is expected to be available in the UK next year, the firm’s boss has said.

The development heralds a major change in the production and administration of effective weight-loss injections, which have taken parts of the world by storm in recent years.

Every week, around 1.5 million people in the UK using drugs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic must currently inject themselves to receive a dose of the waistline-trimming medication.

But a daily orally delivered tablet is expected to appeal to an even larger market, and could also pave the way to these drugs being more widely available in developing countries.

The new pill, known as Orforglipron and under development by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, has successfully completed its stage 3 trials, the company announced.

“Taken once per day without food and water restrictions, it lowered weight by an average of 10.5 per cent (22.9 lbs) compared to 2.2 per cent (5.1 lbs) with a placebo,” the firm said, adding that the results were comparable to those seen with Mounjaro injections.

Kenneth Custer, executive vice president at Eli Lilly, said: “With these positive data in hand, we are moving with urgency toward global regulatory submissions to potentially meet the needs of patients who are waiting.

“If approved, we are ready to offer a convenient, once-daily pill that can be scaled globally – removing barriers and redefining how obesity is treated around the world.”

For the UK, that could happen quickly. Patrik Jonsson, international president of Eli Lilly, believes the pill could be worth $100bn (£75bn) by 2030 and said the UK “will be one of the first countries” to get it, according to The Times.

“I would expect to see Orforglipron in the UK in 2026, subject to regulatory approval,” he added.

Obesity expert Louis Aronne, the founder and chair emeritus of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, said: “Orforglipron could help health care providers expand treatment options for patients who prefer oral therapies without compromising clinical results.”

The pill is also being studied as a potential treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and hypertension in adults with obesity, Eli Lilly said in a statement.

The company’s next moonshot could be a health and societal game-changer – a single shot that could cure obesity for good, Mr Jonsson told The Times.

He said: “The dream for our researchers, what inspires them, is actually a once-and-done treatment on obesity. You get one shot and then you’re taken care of for the rest of your life.”

The funniest, strangest and best things from this year’s Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe is a place where British eccentrics take centre stage and the country’s weirdest most wonderful talents get to explore the craziest outreaches of their creativity, whether it’s staging immersive theatre in a bathroom, or performing a show on a treadmill.

For all the silliness, though, there’s a seriousness to the whole thing: the Fringe is the breeding ground for Britain’s comedy trendsetters: The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen first found audiences here and the international phenomena that are Fleabag and Baby Reindeer got their first outings on the stages of the Fringe.

This year, as ever, the festival’s packed schedule sees Edinburgh veterans rubbing shoulders with dozens of emerging voices on the hunt for an audience, many of them willing to perform anywhere from the backroom of a pub to a book shop, or even a bathtub.

The summer of 2025 is looking like it’s going to be a particularly strong year for established heroes of the Fringe. Winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award back in 2009, Tim Key returns to the Fringe with a new show Loganberry, likely to be informed, in part, by his recent experiences starring in the film The Ballad of Wallis Island and appearing as pigeon in Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. Expect deadpan poems and much hilarity.

Following the success of her smash hit Channel 4 show The Change, about a menopausal woman rediscovering herself in the Forest of Dean, Fringe-favourite and 2013 winner Bridget Christie returns to Edinburgh with a work in progress at the Monkey Barrel. Also showing a work in progress is Ahir Shah, who has pedigree when it comes to licking a show into shape at the festival – when he did so in 2023, he won the main prize. Television presenter and podcaster Nish Kumar is back on his old stomping ground too with a new show Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe at the Gordon Aikman Theatre.

For all the tried-and-tested performers who pretty might guarantee laughs, one of the real joys of the Fringe is to be found in taking a risk on an up-and-coming comedian in the hope you stumble across a star of the future.

In some cases that might mean checking out a Fringe first-timer like Toussaint Douglass, who makes his Edinburgh debut with his hotly-tipped show Accessible Pigeon Material, which promises to be joyfully absurd and very pigeon-heavy in terms of content. Or popping in to see if promising young talents can pull off that tricky second album: having scooped a Best Newcomer gong at last year’s Fringe, Joe Kent-Walters is reprising his gloriously demonic working men’s club owner, Frankie Monroe, at the Monkey Barrel Comedy venue (Cabaret Voltaire).

Also keen to build on a promising start will be Leila Navabi, a television writer from South Wales, whose 2023 musical comedy show Composition included a song about having her ears pierced in Claire’s Accessories. This year, she’s back with Relay, which blends jokes and songs to explore her attempts to make a baby with her girlfriend and a sperm donor.

Whether they’re promising young tyros or established names, for many comedians the creative freedom and outright silliness of the Fringe has them coming back time and time again. Take, for example, Ivo Graham whose show this year is called Orange Crush and is described by the man himself as “a show about hats, haters and hometown heroes, from a man who promised everyone he loved that he wouldn’t do Edinburgh in 2025, but then came back anyway, because he simply had to do this show.”

If you are planning to join Ivo in Edinburgh to soak up the comedy chaos in person, don’t forget provisions. The average Fringe day involves walking 15,000 steps, climbing 43 hills and sitting through at least one show in a sauna-like attic with no ventilation. So, pack accordingly: a bottle of water, a sturdy fan and a packet of Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums or Jelly Babies to keep your blood sugar and national pride intact. Nothing says “I’m here for the arts” quite like chuckling through a late-night experimental mime while chewing on a Jelly Baby’s head.

Now you’re in the know, don’t forget to set the juice loose with Maynards Bassetts – grab a bag today!

NHS could use drones to fly defibrillators to heart attack victims

Drones could soon be used by the NHS to deliver defibrillators directly to people whose hearts have stopped, potentially reaching patients faster than ambulances and saving more lives.

A study by the University of Warwick, funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), tested how a drone delivery system might work in rural communities where winding roads often slow ambulances. The team said the results show drones could be “very promising” in real emergencies.

Every year, less than one in 10 of the more than 30,000 people in the UK that suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital survive the ordeal. A cardiac arrest, often caused by a heart attack, is when the patient’s heart stops.

But if defibrillators are deployed within minutes, it can more than double the chance of survival.

For the study, a trial drone station was set up in a remote area. Volunteers were instructed to dial 999 when they encountered a CPR mannequin, simulating a person who had collapsed. A central control centre then dispatched a drone carrying a defibrillator.

The aircraft flew to the scene, hovered, and lowered the device to the ground on a winch. Volunteers were coached through resuscitation by ambulance service call handlers while using the defibrillator on the mannequin.

On average, it took less than ten minutes from the initial emergency call to the first defibrillator shock.

Dr Christopher Smith, the chief investigator, said: “Ambulance services work as swiftly as possible to get to patients who have suffered cardiac arrests. However, it can sometimes be difficult to get there quickly. AEDs [automated external defibrillators] can be used by members of the public before the ambulance gets there, but this rarely happens. We’ve built a drone system to deliver defibrillators to people having cardiac arrest, which could help save lives.

“We have demonstrated that drones can safely fly long distances with a defibrillator attached and maintain real-time communications with emergency services during the 999 call. We are in a position where we could operationalise this system and use it for real emergencies across the UK soon.”

The project involved the Welsh Ambulance Service and autonomous drone specialists SkyBound. Larger trials will now assess whether the technology can be rolled out nationally.

Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, said: “I want Britain at the forefront of this technological revolution to transform patient care.

“Drone technology has the potential to help reach patients faster, especially in rural communities. This government is backing our country’s leading scientists to research, test, and develop new forms of emergency healthcare which have the potential to save lives.”

Similar drone systems are already in use in parts of Denmark and Sweden.

Tanni Grey-Thompson hits out at assisted dying bill abuse

Britain’s leading former Paralympian turned House of Lords peer has revealed she has been sent abusive emails accusing her of being “responsible for people dying in pain” amid her opposition to the assisted dying bill.

Crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is among those expected to speak in a historic debate on Friday as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returns to parliament.

A long-time campaigner on the rights of disabled people, she said that while it has been difficult to read some of the correspondence directed at her on what is a divisive issue, she accepts it is “part of the job”.

The interview comes as Sir Keir Starmer is facing a severe warning from Labour grandees in the House of Lords who have joined a high powered cross-party group demanding more time for the assisted dying debate.

A letter to the government’s leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Angela Smith, and chief whip Lord Kennedy warns that the bill put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which narrowly cleared the Commons, needs more scrutiny and needs to be adopted by the government to allow it substantial time.

With the employment rights bill and other key legislation already being bogged down in the Lords, the challenge threatens to slow down Sir Keir’s reform agenda further.

They also raised concerns that because it was a private member’s bill, only the sponsor’s amendments got serious attention, and it has allowed ministers a huge amount of delegated power should it pass.

Signatories include former Commonwealth head Baroness Scotland, fellow Labour peers Lord Boateng and Lord Hunt (an ex-health minister); former Tory cabinet minister and minister for the disabled Lord Harper; ex-senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss; and former air marshall the Lord Stirrup.

They warned: “The bill is one of the most significant and consequential pieces of legislation ever to have been sent to us from the House of Commons; one that would change the relationship between the state and its citizens, and the purpose of the NHS, forever.

“There will be no going back. This legislation must therefore balance both the needs of those who would freely choose an assisted death, and those who may be pressured or coerced, or simply lack a meaningful choice, into ending their lives in this way.”

Meanwhile, in her interview with the PA news agency, Baroness Grey-Thompson said: “I’ve had emails, people saying, ‘thank you so much for protecting us’. And I’ve had some incredibly abusive ones as well, saying that I’m responsible for people dying in pain, and it will be on me.”

She said her own experience with her mother’s difficult death with cancer means she understands people’s strong feelings, but insists there should be more focus on improving end-of-life care.

She said: “It’s absolutely appalling that people are scared about how they’re going to die. But we should be having proper specialist palliative care.”

On the abuse she has received, she added: “If you accept the role in the House of Lords, you have to accept there are a lot of people who don’t like what you do.”

Almost 200 peers are said to have put their names down to speak on the bill when it comes to the Lords on Friday, with some suggesting the reading stage could go into a second day in order to give everyone time to have their say on the proposed legislation.

The Commons has voted twice on the overall bill, approving the principle of assisted dying, with peers in the Lords now given the chance to put forward changes.

The legislation, applying only to England and Wales, would face further scrutiny at committee and report stages, with those in favour hopeful it could pass into law by the end of this parliamentary session in spring. But there would be a four-year implementation period before an assisted dying service would be in place.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, who said she is not opposed to the principle of assisted dying but is against this bill as it stands, said it is difficult to know how the process will pan out. She explained: “The bill could still fall. It could run out of (parliamentary) time.”

Former lord chancellor and justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer, who is the sponsor of the bill in the Lords, said he feels “very positive that the bill will pass”.

Assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen has previously urged members of the House of Lords not to block landmark legislation on the issue.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill to the Commons last year, appealed for no “funny games” in terms of procedure in the Lords, saying she “would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue”.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said she believes peers need to “behave with a matter of conscience” when it comes to the debate and votes on amendments and “play a really straight bat on it”.

She said: “It’s my intention to bring a number of amendments to make it as safe as it can possibly be. But we do need to have a really detailed discussion.”

Lord Falconer said: “I’ve heard rumours of procedural devices being used, but I don’t think that will happen. I think the House will roll up its sleeves and get on with what it does best – scrutinising bills and seeing if they can be improved.”

Lord Falconer repeated his view that the bill is “very, very safeguarded” and said he does not believe it requires new safety measures, “but if peers think there’s something that should be added, of course, we will consider it”.