After a doleful day to see the assisted dying invoice cross its second studying… Kim Leadbeater was weirdly chirpy, gabbling… with shades of Jimmy Clitheroe, writes QUENTIN LETTS
A doleful day ended with this inexperienced Commons voting, 330 to 275, for assisted dying. It would be the State providing that assistance. Judges and doctors would become the Grim Reaper’s willing midwives. A new priestly caste of the wigged and white-gowned.
The vote, soon after two o’clock, was heard in silence. No cheers. Even the supporters of this private member’s Bill realised it was a daunting moment. One of those backers, flush-faced Andrew Mitchell (Con, Sutton Coldfield), had earlier claimed the Bill was ‘a very modest and controlled proposal’. The discernible gulp in the chamber when Speaker Hoyle announced the result showed it was anything but that.
In the words of one of the Bill’s opponents, Danny Kruger (Con, E Wilts), ‘the Rubicon was a very small stream’. Yet once it was crossed, everything changed.
The way to dusty death began at 9.30am, the Commons for once packed on a Friday and 160 MPs seeking to speak. ‘Kim Leadbeater!’ cried Sir Lindsay Hoyle as he invited the Bill’s backbench sponsor to open. She is the sister of the late Jo Cox, the MP murdered in 2016. One way or another Ms Leadbeater (Lab, Batley & Spen) will have a sombre political legacy.
A weirdly chirpy customer. She delivered her speech fast, almost gabbling. Shades of Jimmy Clitheroe. ‘So, back to palliative care!’ she chirruped, as if encouraging a class of schoolgirls to resume their game of netball.
She gassed away, insisting there were ‘extra, extra layers of safeguarding’. She promised ‘periods of reflection built in’ to the assisted-dying process. This was the language of insurance sales, of washing-machine warranties.
Kim Leadbeater the Labour MP who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill, speaks to supporters and the meida following the vote
Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill, reacts after the bill was passed in Parliament Square in London
Kim Leadbeater MP walks to meet supporters of assisted dying outside Parliament as MPs in the House of Commons voted by a majority of 55 in favour of the bill
Mr Kruger led backbench opposition. He lost the vote but won the arguments. Wera Hobhouse (Lib Dem, Bath) presumed he was a doctor and you could see why, for his tone was measured and calm. Had I been on my sickbed yesterday I would have wanted Kruger signing my notes rather than blurty, whizzo, let’s-have-a-luverly-demise Leadbeater.
There was no discernible party divide. The only generalisations one might venture: MPs from ethnic-minority seats and those of a more Old Labour background were against, while younger, more middle-class members seemed keener on ‘the pill’.
A rare moment of rancour came when Mr Kruger used the word ‘suicide’ and Cat Eccles (Lab, Stourbridge) called that ‘offensive language’. Mr Kruger patiently explained that the Act of Parliament this Bill hoped to alter happened to contain ‘suicide’ in its title.
There was also perhaps a teaspoon of sarcasm when Alistair Strathern (Lab, Hitchin) said he was ‘deeply intrigued’ by Mr Kruger’s certainty in opposition.
This was unmerited. Mr Kruger was plainly as racked by difficulties as any decent soul would be. But Mr Strathern is an ambitious fellow so we must allow him to speak a little nonsense now and again.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill, greets supporters following the vote
Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill, reacts after the bill was passed
Alicia Kearns (Con, Rutland & Stamford) spoke of the Tory tradition of choice. Diane Abbott (Lab, Hackney N and Stoke Newington) recalled that the Commons ignored opinion polling to ban the death penalty.
‘The State should not be involved in taking a life,’ she said. ‘It was a good principle in 1969 and it remains a good principle today.’ Ms Abbott was a mesmerising figure as she stood unsteadily by the gangway, iPad shaking in her hands, her words emerging only with deliberation and a certain effort.
We had tears, not least from that sturdy presence of Dame Meg Hillier (Lab, Hackney S and Shoreditch) as she recalled how her daughter survived a terrible illness.
A Lib Dem woman festooned in badges spoke of ‘my own family death journey’. Terrible things are sometimes done to the English language yet it survives. But the moment I gave up on Ms Leadbeater was when she used ‘holistic’ a second time. No word is surer evidence of weakness in a parliamentary argument.
Quiet dignity amid the tears on a day of high emotions as pro-assisted dying supporters trade stories of loss at Parliament Square
by Ryan Hooper
The first tears fell long before the result rippled through the crowds shortly before 2.25pm yesterday.
Pro-assisted dying supporters traded stories of loss in the icy late November sunshine, and wept as they recalled their loved ones’ plights.
By the time MPs filed through the Division Lobbies to cast their vote, the opposing sides had shifted into two distinct camps half a mile apart.
There was a quiet dignity on Parliament Square where pro-Bill campaigners embraced, as bemused groups of tourists on guided tours looked on. Among those celebrating was Colette Newton, who lost both her parents to brain tumours.
When the news from the vote emerged, the tears followed. ‘It was incredibly emotional,’ the 49-year-old from Reading said. ‘It is ten years too late for my parents but I’m glad others hopefully won’t have to go through the same as we did.’
Dave Sowry, who accompanied his wife Christy Barry to Dignitas in 2022, said he hoped the Bill would pave the way to cover those with neurodegenerative conditions.
Mr Sowry, 68, from London, whose wife had multiple sclerosis, said the Bill had ‘passed a major hurdle’, but he ‘would like it to one day go further’.
Opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill outside Parliament as MPs debated proposals to legalise assisted dying
Supporters of the Bill react as MPs vote to give it a second reading and send it to committee stage
Two campaigners in favour of the Bill hug each other as the legislation is progressed by MPs
Supporters of the ‘Not Dead Yet’ campaign wipe their tears outside Parliament as the Commons passes the Assisted Dying Bill
Kim Leadbeater MP, whose Bill was voted on by MPs, with supporters in Parliament Square
The proposed legislation was fiercely backed by Dame Esther Rantzen
Others were crestfallen by the result. Outside the Lords, beneath a statue of George V, those opposed sang chants urging MPs to ‘kill the Bill, not the ill’.
Jean Dolan, a widow from Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, said she had spent all day fasting and praying in the hope that MPs might vote against it.
The Christian, 70, clutched a photograph of her late husband Peter, who died in 2015 aged 58 with cancer.
‘He wanted to live right until the end,’ she said. ‘I just feel really strongly about how precious life is. I’m really disappointed with the vote.’
