Image – Unsplash: Alexander Grey
Labour MP support for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill is falling amid fears about its lack of safeguards, with one Labour Party source slamming it as “divisive”.
More Labour MPs have signalled that they intend to vote against Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill that seeks to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults given less than six months to live.
Last November, MPs voted by 330 to 275 in support of Leadbeater’s draft law. However, some MPs who supported the Bill in principle have signalled their reluctance to vote for it a second time.
One such Labour MP is Markus Campbell-Savours. Speaking to the BBC, he said the Bill had crossed “red lines for protecting the vulnerable…
“I would also be very concerned if legislation produced a situation where people who considered themselves a burden on their families and friends felt pressured to end their life.”
Fellow Labour MP Labour MP Josh Fenton-Glynn, who abstained in last November’s vote, also intends to vote against the Bill because of its lack of safeguards.
“We see quite a few of the amendments which are specifically aimed at stopping coercion being opposed by the supporters of the bill”, he told the BBC. “I don’t think chances to make the bill safer have been taken.”
Other MPs from different parties, including the Conservative Party and Reform UK, have said they also intend to vote against the Bill after initially supporting it.
It also appears that there is growing frustration within the Labour Party about the time Leadbeater’s “divisive” Bill is taking up.
“Given the huge amount of difficult issues the government face, from winter fuel payments and Personal Independence Payment to defence and special educational needs and disabilities spending, a tight vote on assisted dying becomes a real problem”, a source within Labour told the BBC.
“Lots of MPs think No 10 would be unwise to expend political capital continuing with this very divisive issue rather than choosing to fix the stuff we got elected to sort.”
An MP debate on Leadbeater’s Bill is set to take place on 13 June, with a decisive vote likely to take place on 20 June.
Last month, Liberal Democrat MP Dr Brian Mathew said he is “minded to vote against the Bill, as I have several concerns I feel have been inadequately answered by the report stage…
In a letter to a constituent, posted online by the Daily Mail, Dr Mathew said: “I share the concerns of many constituents that individuals facing terminal illness will take the [assisted suicide] decision based on concerns that they have become a burden upon their family.
“This is a serious concern for me; I worry that in someone’s final days, this question will loom heavy when it does not need to…
“Additionally, we must be honest, the current state of end-of-life care cannot be described as optimal.”
In March, six of Leadbeater’s fellow Labour MPs slammed her Bill as “irredeemably flawed and not fit to become law”.
SPUC is urging supporters and all concerned citizens to lobby their MPs against the mortal threat posed by assisted suicide. For more information on how to Fight the Leadbeater Bill, please click here.
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