Plans to legalise assisted dying hit by blow after one other Cabinet minister opposes

Plans to legalise assisted dying have been hit by a further blow after another Cabinet minister came out against them.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said he will either abstain or vote against proposed laws when a vote is held on November 29. He said the form of legislation chosen was “not the right way to try to introduce a change in a law on such a complex issue”.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s bill, which will be debated in the Commons, will mark the first time MPs have debated the issue since 2015, when 330 MPs opposed changing the law and 118 MPs voted in favour.

Mr Jones argued that private members’ bills “don’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny and debate as the bills put forward by the government”. The Bristol North West MP will hold a debate for his constituents the week before the vote to hear their views. He informed them of his voting intention in the event description.

It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voiced their opposition to the bill. Mr Streeting, who voted for a change in the law previously, has said he would vote against it this time as he fears terminally ill people could feel “guilt-tripped” into ending their own lives.

Ms Mahmood is also opposed to the plan. “I voted against the bill when it was last introduced in 2015. I’ll be voting against it again,” she told the Times last month. “As a Muslim, I have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity and the value of human life. I don’t think that death is a service that the state should be offering.”

Among other ministers expected to oppose the law is Deputy PM Angela Rayner, who voted against the law in 2015. Foreign Secretary David Lammy also voted against it. In June Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she hadn’t made her mind on it in an interview.

But other ministers including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said he will vote for a change in the law and has branded the UK’s current assisted dying law “cruel”. “I think people having control over their own life and their own death is something that is the right thing to do,” he said. “Obviously there have to be proper safeguards and I understand the concerns of some people on these issues, but my personal view will to be vote in favour of this Bill.”

Keir Starmer, who voted in favour of changing the law in 2015, indicated his support last year. “On the question of assisted dying, there are obviously strong views both ways on this, which I respect,” the PM said. “I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law. We have to be careful, but it would have to be, I think, a free vote on an issue where there are such divided and strong views.”

The proposed legislation would give adults with less than six months to live the power to choose to shorten their deaths if they wish. Two doctors and a judge would need to sign it off under the plans. Under existing law, relatives who help a person end their life could face up to 14 years in prison.

MPs will get a free vote on the issue, which means their party cannot tell them now to vote. The Prime Minister promised Dame Esther Rantzen in September that he would keep his word to allow MPs a vote on the issue. The broadcaster has been campaigning to legalise assisted dying after revealing last year that she has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and that she has joined the Swiss Dignitas organisation. Her activism on the issue has propelled the topic into public conversation.