The biggest decision MPs will ever vote on? How MPs are making their decision on assisted dying bill

For weeks debate has raged over the assisted dying bill, with many MPs openly wrestling with their conscience. Political correspondent EMMA HUTCHINSON looks at how they will make a decision one MP calls maybe the most important they will ever make.

With just hours to go until they have to decide which way to vote, many MPs continue to struggle to make their minds up on how to vote on the assisted dying bill.

For the first time in this Parliament, MPs have a free vote. It's the first time for all those newly elected in July, and it's a big decision.

You can see how your MP intends to vote using the ITV News vote tracker here.

ITV News Anglia has contacted every MP in the region to ask how they will vote. We have heard from most and currently the largest number are in favour of changing the law - 23 MPs so far have publicly said they will back the bill; 14 say they oppose the measure; and 18 MPs say they remain undecided.

Some of the region's most senior MPs are in the undecided category, including Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman and Harwich and North Essex MP Sir Bernard Jenkin.

They say they will only decide how to vote as they listen to the debate tomorrow.

Others - many of who are new MPs - are daunted by having to make such a big decision just five months after being elected.

One has said they are simply too new in Parliament to have to decide on what could be about the biggest issue they vote on ever as MPs.

All MPs say they have received significant correspondence from constituents making passionate cases to support or oppose the bill, many with emotive personal experience.

Others have made their minds up.

Bury St Edmunds MP Dr Peter Prinsley is newly-elected but has made up his mind to back a change in the law to allow assisted dying due to years of experience as a doctor.

He told me that when he was a younger doctor the idea of helping someone die would have been "unconscionable". Now he says he has changed his mind and is urging colleagues to back the bill.

Many have held constituency public meetings, others have canvassed opinion, and the Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe says he has held a mini-referendum in his Great Yarmouth constituency which has led him to back the bill - though he says that is not necessarily his personal view.

What will happen next?

It is difficult to predict how this vote will go.

The indications are it is much more likely to pass this parliamentary stage than the last time this matter was voted on nine years ago, when it was roundly defeated.

There will be five of hours debate on Friday, and many MPs have put in to speak so contributions from backbenchers may be just a couple of minutes long.

If MPs do vote in favour, there will still be a long parliamentary process and further votes before assisted dying could become law.

What is certain is that Friday will be a big day for many: those on both sides of this campaign, MPs grappling with this issue and parliament itself.

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