Labour MP with incurable breast most cancers resigns to ‘handle my situation’
Health minister Ashley Dalton, who has advanced breast cancer, has resigned from her post, saying now is the time for her to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to manage her condition
Keir Starmer with Ashley Dalton after she won the West Lancashire by-election in 2023(Image: PA)
A Labour minister has resigned from her post to manage her advanced breast cancer.
Ashley Dalton, 53, who has advanced and incurable breast cancer, said now is the time to step down from her role as minister for public health and prevention to manage her condition and focus on being a constituency MP.
She said she needed to change her workload to manage the side effects of chemotherapy, as well as caring her her elderly mum. Ms Dalton said the alternative would be “making myself sick and unable to fulfil any of the roles I love”.
In a letter to Keir Starmer, the MP for West Lancashire praised the government’s National Cancer Plan, which she said won’t only save 320,000 lives over its lifetime, but will help people living with cancer “to live well and to work well”.
She said speaking about the plan had made her reflect on what “living and working well means for myself”.
READ MORE: MP with incurable cancer recalls teen daughter’s powerful two-word reaction
She continued: “Your Government has committed to making sure that people with long-term health conditions are supported and enabled to return to or continue to work where they can.
“It is so important that we recognise the value of all of us to contribute and participate and that we stop writing people off due to health or disability. My constituents deserve a Member of Parliament to represent them with diligence and conviction.
“Whilst my oral chemotherapy treatment will not stop me from being that champion for West Lancashire, I believe now is the right time to take the reasonable adjustments I need to both manage my condition and focus on being a constituency MP by stepping back from ministerial duties.”
Mr Starmer said he accepted her resignation with “great sadness”. In a letter to Ms Dalton, the PM went on: “You are an exemplary Minister and should be extremely proud of the impact that you have made on behalf of this Labour government.
“I am particularly grateful, as you know, for your work on the National Cancer Plan. It will allow us to improve survival, care, research, and the wellbeing of millions of cancer patients. To complete the work whilst receiving ongoing treatment yourself is a remarkable contribution.”
In a separate article for the Times, Ms Dalton, said she needed to make a change to her workload so she could “continue to serve my constituents as they deserve, whilst adequately managing the side effects of chemo as well as caring for my elderly mum”.
She added: “The alternative would likely be more regular trips to Liverpool Aintree, making myself sick and unable to fulfil any of the roles I love.”
She said the days following the Government’s national cancer plan announcement justified her decision to step down, adding that she spent the weekend “at Aintree University Hospital, IV drip hanging from my arm, blood tests, ECG and a chest x-ray, praying I wouldn’t need to be admitted”.
Ms Dalton, who was elected as an MP after winning the West Lancashire by-election in 2023, said she takes chemotherapy as “five tablets twice a day for two weeks, with a week of rest” as part of a three-week cycle of treatment. She added: “And, at present, my disease is stable. Having said that, metastatic breast cancer is incurable. I will never beat it.
“In fact, when people ask when I will know I’ve beaten my cancer, I tell them ‘when I’ve died of something else’. But the biggest mistake anyone could make about me and my cancer is to write me off.
“Upon being diagnosed with metastatic, sometimes called advanced, or stage 4 cancer, I was told not to worry because support was available for me to access benefits and to give up work. For some people, giving up work and accessing support from the state is absolutely the right choice. But just as cancer is not homogeneous, neither are we people living with cancer.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was sad to see Ms Dalton go but was “proud” of her decision and impact. He wrote on X: “Ashley has been an outstanding minister and has been so in the face of extraordinary adversity.
“She has achieved more as a minister than many politicians achieve in their entire careers. I’m so sorry to lose her from our team, but proud of her decision and her impact.”
