Labour must take immediate action on palliative care, says senior Lib Dem
Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, chair of the health and social care select committee, voted for the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons yesterday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said she has “long believed, especially in the cases of terminally ill adults, that they should have that choice at the end of life”.
She said:
I’ve been moved by personal experiences, my best friend’s mother contracted cancer about 20 years ago and we lived in Belgium at the time.
She started the process but in fact died before she was able to complete the legal part of the process because the cancer was so aggressive. I saw how taking back that little bit of control in her life was important to her.
Parliament needs to take the arguments against the bill “seriously” though, she added, while saying that health secretary Wes Streeting should be taking a more proactive approach to the issue of palliative care.
She said:
I was disappointed. I was expecting an announcement from Wes Streeting yesterday to say ‘look, we’ve heard and we are going to do something’ … immediate funding commitments and a view to making sure this is dealt with in the next year or two.
I would argue that, whether this passes or not, that is one of the key messages that came out of the debate.
Key events
Vulnerable people should not see ‘supported suicide’ as only options, says Abbott
Labour’s Diane Abbott, mother of the house, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she voted against the bill due to concerns that vulnerable people will “get swept up in the assisted dying route”.
She said that a quarter of people who want to place family members into hospices are unable to, adding:
If we are thinking about choice, we also have to think about the choice of people who if they could get support, could end their lives peacefully and happily but might find themselves either because they don’t want to be a burden or they are worried about their family’s finances being drained by the cost of care or even a few people who think they shouldn’t be taking up a hospital bed.
I think they should have a genuine choice and not see supported suicide as the only option.
She said she thought “very hard about it” but voted for “vulnerable people who, perhaps for all the wrong reasons, were going to opt for assisted suicide”.
Meanwhile, Abbott said that tweaks to the bill at committee stage were unlikely to sway her and other MPs who voted against it further down the line.
Labour must take immediate action on palliative care, says senior Lib Dem
Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, chair of the health and social care select committee, voted for the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons yesterday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said she has “long believed, especially in the cases of terminally ill adults, that they should have that choice at the end of life”.
She said:
I’ve been moved by personal experiences, my best friend’s mother contracted cancer about 20 years ago and we lived in Belgium at the time.
She started the process but in fact died before she was able to complete the legal part of the process because the cancer was so aggressive. I saw how taking back that little bit of control in her life was important to her.
Parliament needs to take the arguments against the bill “seriously” though, she added, while saying that health secretary Wes Streeting should be taking a more proactive approach to the issue of palliative care.
She said:
I was disappointed. I was expecting an announcement from Wes Streeting yesterday to say ‘look, we’ve heard and we are going to do something’ … immediate funding commitments and a view to making sure this is dealt with in the next year or two.
I would argue that, whether this passes or not, that is one of the key messages that came out of the debate.
MPs back landmark assisted dying bill to give some terminally ill people the right to end their lives
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and views from Westminster over the next few hours.
MPs have taken a historic step toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales by backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their own lives.
Campaigners in favour of the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill said it was a significant move towards giving people more choice over the way they die, after the Commons backed the bill by 330 votes for to 275 against.
Brought by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the bill would give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to die once the request has been signed off by two doctors and a high court judge.
It still has further steps to go through before becoming law, and supporters believe assisted dying will not be an option for those with a terminal diagnosis for at least three years.
The vote, which is the first on the issue for almost a decade, split the political parties and the cabinet. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves voted in favour alongside prominent opposition MPs such as Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt. Those voting against included Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister; Wes Streeting, the health secretary; Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader; and Nigel Farage, the Reform leader.
During the five-hour debate, the Commons heard impassioned pleas on both sides. MPs recounted personal experiences of illness and death, and appeals they had heard from their constituents on assisted dying.
Esther Rantzen, who galvanised the debate on assisted dying last December after revealing she had lung cancer, said the bill offered everyone “equal choice”.
She said:
Those who don’t want an assisted death and don’t want to take part in providing assisted dying can opt out of it, don’t have to do it, don’t choose to end their lives that way. So it offers everyone equal choice, whatever their religion.
Kit Malthouse, who made an impassioned speech in favour of the legislation, said parliament had taken a “significant first step” and called for the government to now dedicate more parliamentary time to consideration to the bill.
According to recent polling, three-quarters of the public back a change in the law.
For the full report on yesterday’s historic vote, see here:
