Health Secretary pledges not to vote for assisted suicide Bill

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has revealed that he will not vote for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill when it receives its Third Reading.

Streeting, who voted against the proposals at Second Reading, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his “position on this is clear” and he disagrees “on the merits of the Bill overall”.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow patients in England and Wales deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live to receive help to kill themselves. It will now progress to Report Stage and Third Reading, where MPs will get another opportunity to vote it down.

‘Slippery slope’

The Health Secretary has raised concerns that patients could seek assisted suicide to save the NHS money.

Speaking last year, he said: “You do touch on the slippery slope argument, which is the potential for cost savings if people choose to opt for assisted dying rather than stay in the care of the care providers or the NHS”.

Streeting emphasised that “any new service comes at the expense of other competing pressures and priorities”, and “people can see the state of public finances, the state of our public services, and we do need to be in the business of making choices”.

The Bill’s Third Reading has been delayed from 25 April and is now expected to take place on 16 May, but could be deferred into June. If it passes Third Reading it will be considered by the House of Lords.

MPs

In March, a group of Leadbeater’s colleagues urged the rest of the Labour party to oppose her Bill.

Antonia Bance, Meg Hillier, Jess Asato, Florence Eshalomi, James Frith, and Melanie Ward said the promise that the Committee would strengthen the Bill was not kept.

“We have followed the committee stage closely, and cannot recommend a vote in favour of this Bill in its remaining stages. Our view is that the Bill is irredeemably flawed and not fit to become law.”

They concluded that the Bill puts “the most vulnerable people in society at unacceptable risk” and “we urge MPs to vote against it”.