The Welsh Parliament, including the country’s First Minister and Health Secretary, have voted against a motion calling for a new law to allow ‘assisted dying’ in Wales and England.

In total, 19 Senedd members voted in favour of the motion, with 26 against and nine abstentions. The vote was symbolic as the Senedd does not have the power to change the law on such issues.

The motion had proposed that adults suffering “intolerably” from an incurable physical condition should have the option of an assisted suicide, with “robust” safeguards in place.

One politician favouring the motion said his grandfather was threatened with a manslaughter charge for wanting to help his own wife die.

Opposing the motion, Plaid Cymru MS, Delyth Jewell, was close to tears as she said: “My fear with this motion, my terror is not so much with how it will begin but how it will end.”

She said safeguards in countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium had been gradually eroded.

“For many disabled people or people who are not close to their family, people who are worried, anxious and lonely it would leave them to feeling they have no choice but to end their life.”