MPs to get historic vote on assisted dying bill this month

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Louise Thomas

Editor

Proposals to change the law to give terminally ill people the choice on end-of-life care are to be debated in Parliament this month.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater said she hoped for “honest, compassionate and respectful debate” when her Bill, which will be tabled on 16 October, is considered in the Commons.

Cabinet collective responsibility will be waived to allow ministers to vote as they wish.

The conversation around legalising assisted dying has been increasingly in the spotlight for the past year, with high-profile figures including broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen calling for a parliamentary debate and vote on change.

Dame Esther said she was “thrilled and grateful” at the news, which she said could mean “terminally ill people like me can look forward with hope and confidence that we could have a good death”.

She said: “I never thought I might live to see the current cruel law change.

“But even if it is too late for me, I know thousands of terminally ill patients and their families will be given new hope.

“All we ask is to be given the choice over our own lives.”

Ms Leadbeater said her private member’s bill (PMB) would establish in law the right for terminally ill eligible adults to have choice at the end of life to shorten their deaths and ensure stronger protections for them and their loved ones in the aftermath.

She said: “Parliament should now be able to consider a change in the law that would offer reassurance and relief – and most importantly, dignity and choice – to people in the last months of their lives.”

Her Bill is guaranteed time for debate in the Commons after she topped the PMB ballot, which gives her priority on a Friday sitting.

It will be the first time the topic has been debated in the House of Commons since 2015, when an assisted dying Bill was defeated.

The Spen Valley MP, who is the sister of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, said there was “widespread agreement that the current legislation, passed over 60 years ago, is no longer fit for purpose”.

Doing nothing would “leave too many people as they come to the end of their life continuing to suffer in often unbearable pain and fear of what is to come, denied the choice they deserve”, she said.

Ms Leadbeater added: “I believe that with the right safeguards and protections in place, people who are already dying and are mentally competent to make a decision should be given the choice of a shorter, less painful death, on their own terms and without placing family and loved ones at risk of prosecution.”

She said: “It will not undermine calls for improvements to palliative care.

“Nor will it conflict with the rights of people with disabilities to be treated equally and have the respect and support they are absolutely right to campaign for in order to live fulfilling lives.

“I support these causes just as passionately.

“The evidence from the Health and Social Care Select Committee report earlier this year found that where legislation similar to mine has been introduced elsewhere around the world it has been accompanied by improved palliative care provision and has not impacted negatively on the lives of disabled people.”

But Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, which opposes a change in the law, said the Bill’s introduction was “clearly disappointing news”.

He said: “I would strongly urge the government to focus on fixing our broken palliative care system that sees up to one in four Brits who would benefit from this type of care being unable to access it, rather than discussing again this dangerous and ideological policy.”

Dame Esther, who revealed in December that she had joined the Swiss Dignitas clinic as she lives with terminal cancer, has called for prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to follow through on his pledge to make time for a free vote on assisted dying.

The Childline founder has described the current law as a “cruel mess”.

Assisting someone to end their life is against the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in Scotland a Bill is currently being considered that would give terminally ill adults the right to request help to end their life.

Ms Leadbeater’s Bill would cover England and Wales only.

Former Labour justice secretary Lord Falconer has introduced the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill in the House of Lords, which is expected to be debated in mid-November.

The peer said he looked forward to “working with Kim and colleagues across both Houses to ensure that a safe, compassionate assisted dying law is passed”.

Cabinet secretary Simon Case said the government would remain neutral on the matter of assisted dying.

“Though ministers need not resile from previously stated views when directly asked about them, they should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate,” he said.