MP 'denied communion' over assisted dying vote

Chris Coghlan was elected MP for Dorking and Horley in July 2024.

An MP says he is being denied communion by his local catholic priest after he voted in favour of the assisted dying bill.

Chris Coghlan, the Liberal Democrat MP for Dorking and Horley in Surrey, backed the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which was approved in the House of Commons with a majority of 23 MPs earlier this month.

Mr Coghlan said Father Ian Vane, the priest at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Dorking, wrote to him before the vote, and then last week told people attending mass that he would be refusing him communion.

The Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton said Bishop Richard Moth had spoken to the MP and offered to meet him to "discuss the issues and concerns raised".

Mr Coghlan told BBC Radio Surrey that he and his family were not in the church in person to hear the priest, but that people who were there had contacted him to say they were "pretty appalled".

"It is one thing to take a view on an MPs vote on a conscience vote in Parliament, it is quite another to go out and publicly name and shame them, as a Catholic priest, to hundreds of their constituents," he said.

Mr Coghlan added that he had thought "carefully" about the vote, and that he felt "utterly disillusioned" by what had happened.

Chris Coghlan says a priest at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Dorking said that communion was being denied to him

In a statement, the local diocese said the issue "was a complex one for all involved", and that it recognised "the difficult task faced by MPs in seeking to represent their constituents".

It said Bishop Moth had urged clergy to write to MPs "in a private capacity" to express their concerns about the bill, and to ask them to vote against it.

It added: "The Catholic Church believes in the sanctity of life and the dignity of every person."

The legislation, which also needs to pass through the House of Lords, would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less to live to get medical assistance to end their own lives.