MPs voted by 208-123 to pass the Abortion Bill 2017-19 at the first stage, with a second stage debate to take place in a month’s time.

Moving the bill, Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, said abortion in the UK is “underpinned by the oldest legal framework for any healthcare treatment, with the harshest criminal sentences in the developed world for women having an illegal abortion”.

However, Fiona Bruce, a qualified solicitor and Conservative MP for Congleton, urged MPs to reject the bill on the basis that it would “set a dangerous constitutional precedent of interference”.

She said: “Northern Ireland is the most recent part of the UK to vote on abortion law, in 2016, and it voted by a clear majority to retain its law as it stands.”