MPs voted by 330 votes to 275 to support a private members bill brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which could usher in one of the biggest societal changes
Assisted dying bill backed by MPs in historic vote
Parliament has taken a historic step towards legalising assisted dying in England and Wales after MPs backed a bill to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives.
MPs voted by 330 votes to 275 to support a private members bill brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which could usher in one of the biggest societal changes since the legalisation of same-sex marriage a decade ago. Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves were among 15 Cabinet Ministers who backed changing the law, along with ex-PM Rishi Sunak.
Eight members of the Cabinet voted against the bill, including Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey also opposed the legislation.
Ms Leadbeater told MPs: “We’re not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice about how to die.”
At times the Commons fell silent as MPs recounted heart wrenching stories of the pain and suffering of loved ones or their constituents during nearly five hours of debate. Tory MP Alicia Kearns spoke of her mother’s agonising death from cancer and said it was wrong not to give people the choice to end their lives.
The West Rutland MP said: “Imagine a situation where you have cancer that day by day is breaking every individual vertebrae on your body, one by one. There is nothing that can take away the pain, and that is a situation in which my mother lost her life, her last words were ‘I cannot go on like this’.
“And thankfully for her, there were only a few more days of pain. But for others, there are months, and before they get to that six months, they will have suffered from years of excruciating agony that palliative care cannot resolve.” She added: “To deny choice to others, especially those with only six months to live, where their personal choice does no harm, is wrong.”
Labour MP Lizzi Collinge said one of her close family members had starved herself to death through withdrawal of treatment. “She had been unwell for many decades with a condition that would have eventually killed her, at one point becoming unable to swallow,” she said. The Morecambe and Lunesdale MP said eventually her family member decided “enough was enough”, adding: “As a mentally competent adult under the current law she was able to take that decision.”
Former Conservative minister Kit Malthouse, a longstanding backer, said dying people were entitled to care. He told MPs: “Even if you think there is an impact, are you seriously telling me that my death, my agony, is too much for the NHS to have time for? Is it too much hassle? “Or even the claim that it would overload the judges. That I should drown in my own faecal vomit because it is too much hassle for the judges to deal with?”
But Labour MP Florence Eshalomi fought back tears as she described how her late mother “wanted to live” despite her chronic illness. The Vauxhall and Camberwell Green MP said: “I cannot in good conscience support this.
“My late mother lived with chronic illness all her life and I knew that one day her pain would be too unbearable for her but she did not let that limit her. She wanted to live. I believe this bill will not protect the wishes of people in her situation.”
Tory Danny Kruger, the lead MP for the opponents, said: “My view is that if we get our broken palliative care system right and our wonderful hospices properly funded we can do so much more for all the people that we will hear about today, using modern pain relief and therapies to help everybody die with a minimum of suffering when the time comes. But we won’t be able to do that if we introduce this new option. Instead we will expose many more people to harm.”
His mum, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith, has been vocal in her support for legalisation of assisted dying.
Assisted dying is currently against the law in England and Wales, carrying a maximum jail sentence of 14 years. The bill would change the law to let terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to end their lives, subject to a number of safeguards, including the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
It could take up to two years for an assisted dying service to get up and running – if the bill makes it through Parliament. It will undergo line-by-line scrutiny by MPs and faces further votes in both the Commons and the Lords before it can become law. Some MPs indicated during the debate that they could remove their support, if they are not convinced of the safeguards.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Leadbeater said her late sister, the MP Jo Cox who was murdered in her constituency in 2016, would have been proud to see the bill pass its second reading. “Well, I’m nearly in floods because it’s a really emotional process,” she said. “But I’m incredibly proud – I think today we’ve seen Parliament at its best.”
She said she had thought about her sister Jo a lot in the last few months, as the former MP had voted in favour of assisted dying in 2015. “I think she’d be very proud of the way Parliament has conducted itself,” the Spen Valley MP said.
Dame Esther Rantzen said she was “absolutely thrilled” by the result, which she said could spare others from the ordeal she and others are experiencing. The 84-year-old broadcaster, who revealed she had stage four lung cancer last year, has spoken about how she joined Dignitas in Switzerland to give her the choice to end her life.
But actress and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr expressed concerns about the “fine line between terminal illness and disability”. Speaking at a protest outside Parliament, the 52-year-old said: “Our lives go in and out of the NHS and the medical system, and I think we are probably slightly less trusting than your average person.
“We know doctors are fallible, we know mistakes are made about prognosis, and we are concerned that the power that the medical profession wields in our lives will become more uncontrolled if this Bill goes through.”