Health Secretary Wes Streeting to vote towards plans to alter legislation on assisted dying
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has told Labour MPs he will vote against plans to change the law on assisted dying.
The senior Cabinet minister said he had changed his mind on the highly sensitive issue – after voting for it almost a decade ago. Last week a new bill to allow terminally ill people to end their lives was formally introduced to the Commons by backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.
It will be debated for the first time in the Commons next month since 2015 when a similar move was defeated by 330 votes to 118. But Mr Streeting told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party this week he will be voting against the legislation, the Times reported.
Speaking on LBC on Wenesday, he said he “agonised” over the issue. He said: “I have in my mind’s eye when thinking about this one of my grandmothers who died a very long, slow painful death from lung cancer when I was 10-years-old. There were so many moments in those final months when I would have given anything to stop the pain and would have wished for her to have the choice.”
The Health Secretary said he also heard “powerful testimonies” from other families, which “leans me towards supporting the provision”. But he went on: “Where I am now is having done this job for a few months… I think in order to be a real choice, we need to have high quality palliative care available for everybody who needs it. And bluntly we don’t.”
Mr Streeting said he also “really worries” about family coercion, the objections from disability campaigners, and the other pressures facing the NHS.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood also said she will vote against the plans. She told the Times earlier this week: “As a Muslim, I have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity and value of human life.”
Keir Starmer spoke in favour of changing the law on assisted dying earlier this year – promising campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen time to hold a vote on the issue. The TV legend, 84, sparked a national conversation on the issue last year when she revealed she had stage 4 lung cancer last year.
Dame Esther said was considering going to the Swiss assisted-dying clinic Dignitas if a “miracle” drug failed to treat her condition. The PM also promised Labour MPs and Cabinet ministers a free vote – allowing them to vote with their conscience on the issue.
Earlier this month, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case wrote to ministers to say that, while they “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”.
Polling has shown the majority of voters back a change in the law on assisted dying, with the most recent research finding 57% are in favour.
