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MPs today voted to back a landmark bill to change the law on assisted dying in England and Wales in historic moment in the Commons.

They voted by 314 in favour to 291 against of the legislation - a majority of 23.

It means the controversial legislation - spearheaded by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater - will now pass to the House of Lords where it will be debated by peers.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill aims to give terminally ill people over the age 18 with just six months left to live the option to end their life early. Their decision must be "clear, settled and informed" at every stage - and free from coercion.

It must also be subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Assisted dying is current banned and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

In the first Commons vote for almost a decade on the issue back in November, MPs voted by a majority of 55 to support the principle of changing the law.

Supporters and opponents of a change in the law gathered at Westminster early on Friday, holding placards saying "Let us choose" and "Don't make doctors killers". Ahead of the vote, Ms Leadbeater said it will "offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it".

But the Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, who quit the government on Thursday evening over cuts to disability benefits, had urged MPs with doubts to reject the legislation.

Ms Foxcroft said: "I don't claim that every disabled person opposes assisted dying, but I do claim that the vast majority of disabled people and their organisations oppose it.They need the health and social care system fixing first. They want us as parliamentarians to assist them to live, not to die.

"Disabled people's voices matter in this debate, and yet, as I've watched the Bill progress, the absence of disabled people's voices has been astonishing. They have wanted to engage. Indeed, they have been crying out to be included, yet the engagement has been negligible."

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