Why the ‘individual conscience vote’ of MPs had its own assisted death last week

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Votes on abortion and assisted death suggest the UK is on the cusp of a major shift - issues once determined by MPs’ individual conscience are becoming American-style party political matters, political editor David Maddox writes

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Two votes in the Commons split by four days laid the ground for a seismic shift in British social policy making last week one of the most significant in the modern history of Parliament.

But while the votes on abortion (Tuesday) and assisted dying (Friday) were officially matters of individual conscience the evidence from both suggests that the UK is now closer than ever to a US-style party politicisation of moral issues.