Image – Shutterstock: Welsh Parliament, Cardiff
Members of the Welsh Senedd last night narrowly agreed to a motion that would allow the Leadbeater assisted suicide bill, if passed, to be implemented in Wales.
The Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) was backed by 28 Senedd members, with 23 against and two abstentions. However, it only passed when amended with a motion of regret, which said the Senedd “Regrets the lack of thorough consideration of the constitutional implications of this Bill for Wales during the legislative process.”
There were reports of significant pressure being placed on the Senedd by Bill sponsors Kim Leadbeater & Lord Falconer, with a BBC correspondent saying they “told the First Minister that, if the assisted dying LCM is rejected, they would seek to remove the clause that would allow the Welsh government to set up assisted dying services in the NHS” – ie. threatening them with a privatised system.
Despite these threats, First Minister Eluned Morgan and Health Secretary Jeremy Miles were among those who voted against. Voting tables show that while 21 Labour and 7 Plaid Cymru MSs backed the vote, 5 Labour ministers and 4 Plaid politicians opposed the decision.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid’s spokesperson on the NHS, voted against, as did deputy Plaid leader Delyth Jewell. Speaking against, she said: “The fear and terror I have is how this will end in situations where disabled people, those who are poor or lonely or abused, will be led to feel they have no choice but to end their life.”
All Conservative MSs opposed the motion. Darren Millar, Welsh Conservative leader, accused the law’s backers of “sanitising” the issue.
“While the term assisted dying is used by many to soften the reality, we are actually talking about assisted suicide,” he said.
He said that as a “matter of conscience” he “could not support a framework that treats some lives as less worthy of protection than others”.
Reform’s two MSs abstained. James Evans had previously supported the broad principle of assisted dying in a previous Senedd vote 18 months ago.
He told the Senedd on Tuesday that his position had not changed and that it was his “fundamental view”.
Announcing that he would abstain “with a very heavy heart”, he said the bill was “still a work in progress” and that granting consent before the legislation was complete would bind Wales to a framework that was not yet finished.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, the party’s only MS, voted against the motion.
Several MSs criticised the process, pointing out that the Senedd has no say in whether or not assisted suicide itself is made legal, and is voting while the Lords are still considering a large number of changes. Constitutional expert Prof. Emyr Lewis said that the Welsh Government carried blame for “forcing a premature vote on the LCM when the Bill’s final form is far from clear and curtailing the scope of the LCM.”
Those who voted for the motion seemed to do so out of fear of the alternative, not because they supported the principle. Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price backed the motion because “the alternative, in my view, does not protect Wales”.
“It abandons Wales to a private only system no-one here, in all conscience, would design,” he said.
Alun Davies, the Labour Blaenau Gwent MS, said the Senedd should have been able to take a “complete decision” on assisted dying, but refusing the motion would have made Wales “a much much worse place to be”.
Alithea Williams, SPUC’s Public Policy Manager, said: “It is obviously disappointing that MSs have backed this dangerous motion. However, it is clear that many did so because they feared, under pressure from the Bill’s sponsors, that blocking it would have lead to assisted suicide being forced on Wales with even less control. It should not be taken as an endorsement of the Bill itself, or of the principle of assisted suicide. The Senedd decisively rejected assisted suicide in 2024, weeks before Second Reading in Westminster.”
Miss Williams continued: “This vote will only have any impact if the Leadbeater/Falconer Bill passes through Westminster. It makes it even more crucial that Lords properly scrutinise the Bill, including listening to the concerns of Welsh politicians.”
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