Assisted dying: More Cabinet members reveal how they will vote
Bridget Phillipson and Louise Haigh are the latest in Sir Keir Starmer’s top team to indicate how they will vote next week.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Education Secretary said she is trying to handle the conversation around the assisted dying vote in a “responsible way” as she indicated she will not support the latest Bill.
Bridget Phillipson said she has not changed her mind since voting against previous proposed legislation on assisted dying in 2015.
Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said she intends to vote in favour, as she did previously.
A number of Cabinet members have stated their voting intentions ahead of the November 29 debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting facing criticism for his comments.
Back in 2015 when this was last before Parliament, I voted against the measure and, in that time, I haven't changed my mind
Having confirmed he will be voting no to the proposed legislation, Mr Streeting has told how he has asked his officials to carry out a cost analysis of any change and has suggested it could cost the NHS more if a new law was brought in.
Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman said the Health Secretary had “crossed the line” in saying how he was going to vote as she believed that “breaches neutrality and sends a signal”, while Baroness Margaret Hodge urged him to “just hold fire a little bit” and described it as “a bit daft” to argue that assisted dying would cost the health service more.
In an interview with the PA news agency, Ms Haigh said: “Obviously this is a matter of conscience, and the Government is neutral, but my personal view is that I intend to vote for it.”
She said she had “weighed up a number of issues, including my constituents’ concerns”, but added that she would set out further details on her reasoning after the vote “given that the Government is required to be neutral”.
Asked how she is minded to vote next week, Ms Phillipson told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “Back in 2015 when this was last before Parliament, I voted against the measure and, in that time, I haven’t changed my mind.”
Asked what her thinking is, she said: “Because the Government takes a neutral position, I’ve got to approach it in a responsible way.
“Primarily the views I held then are the views I hold now, which is around making sure that there are safeguards in place to stop there being any suggestion of coercion.
“Now, those setting forward the legislation would argue that the legislation delivers that, and it’s for individual members of Parliament to consider, on balance, how they arrive at these matters.
“These are difficult, you know, sensitive and emotive issues, and these are for each of us as individuals to reach a conclusion.”
Asked about Cabinet members speaking out on their views and how that can be reconciled with Government neutrality on the issue, she said: “Different members of the Cabinet, as across Government, as with back bench MPs, will have different opinions on this matter, some members of the Cabinet have set out their views in one direction, some in the other.”
She said she was answering a directly-asked question and “seeking to do so in a way that is balanced”.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has previously stated she will vote in favour of the Bill, while Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will not support it.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week declined to give her view, saying she will be “looking at all the evidence ahead of the vote in Parliament”.