A handful of Labour government ministers have gone public with serious concerns surrounding the possible—and, in fact, likely—legalisation of assisted suicide. So why has Prime Minister Keir Starmer not only welcomed the new bill, but also “fast-tracked” voting in Parliament?
Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones is the latest Labour official to criticise not only the likely consequences of legalisation but also the way in which it has been pursued. He rightly points out that the fact the law has been introduced by a backbench (Labour) MP as a so-called ‘private members’ bill,’ rather than by the government, means it will not be granted “anywhere near the same level of scrutiny and debate” …
and legalising assisted dying is far from a straightforward issue.
He joins Wes Streeting, the health secretary (no less), who has stressed that the shocking state of palliative care in Britain means new legislation could see people being “coerced” into ending their lives.
A hopeful piece in UnHerd published after Streeting went public suggests that his opposition “may well have an effect on Labour MPs.”
Likewise, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned that “if it just becomes the norm that at a certain age, or with certain diseases, you are now a bit of a burden … that’s a really dangerous position to be in.” And it is worth noting that Mahmood’s Ministry of Justice and Streeting’s Health Department are the two areas of government which would be most impacted by the legalisation of assisted suicide—or, as its supporters prefer euphemistically to call it, assisted dying.
Perhaps Starmer’s own support for the practice, which stretches back some considerable time, explains the government’s hurried approach—not that that would be at all good enough.
A vote will take place in Parliament later this month, on November 29th, and it appears unlikely that these sceptical voices will be enough to push back against the ‘progressive’ wave.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has also made it clear that he will be voting against legalisation, because of his fear that the system would be “abused,” as it has been in Canada.
What’s worse is that, as Labour’s Mahmood astutely put it: “I feel that once you cross that line you’ve crossed it forever … it just becomes the norm.”
