MPs unhappy with assisted suicide committee selection

MPs have expressed their disappointment with the makeup of the committee selected to scrutinise Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill.

Leadbeater has selected 23 MPs to scrutinise her Bill; 14 who voted in favour and nine against at its second reading, where a close vote saw MPs vote by 330 to 275 in favour of the principles of the Bill.

However, some campaigners have called the choice of committee members “a stitch-up”, with a disproportionate number of MPs in support of the Bill included, and prominent opposing voices passed over. Notably, the three MPs chosen with backgrounds in medicine are all in favour of the Bill, while medics who voted against were ignored.

Rigorous scrutiny

The committee will begin hearing evidence from January, and will be aiming to finish by the end of April. Alongside it, will be a separate committee looking into improvement to end-of-life care.

Leadbeater said: “The Bill committee will bring together colleagues with differing views and valuable experience in order to give the bill the detailed scrutiny it deserves and requires”.

The committee includes both the Health and Justice ministers, which is unusual for a Private Members Bill, but both voted in favour of assisted suicide in November. Leadbeater commented that this reflects “the level of engagement and commitment that such an important piece of legislation demands”.

The MP stated she is “confident the bill will receive detailed scrutiny to ensure that both houses of parliament are presented with legislation for further consideration that is workable and rigorous in terms of the rights it confers and the safeguards and protections it affords”.

‘A stitch-up’

Labour MP Rachael Maskell stated that she requested to be on the committee but was not selected. She pointed out: “I am surprised that no one who was on the assisted dying/assisted suicide health select committee inquiry is on the committee, and myself and Dr Ben Spencer for our relevant clinical experience.”

Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville-Roberts, indicated that while she voted for the Bill to go to committee stage, she would require issues to be fixed before voting it into law. Saville-Roberts said the bill needed “sufficient scrutiny to stitch together a complete garment out of what is presently threads and patches”.

Among those selected was Conservative MP Danny Kruger, the principal opposition to the Bill in the House of Commons. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he explained that a “large number of MPs only supported it conditionally”, trusting that safeguarding gaps in the Bill would be fixed.

He stated that “the Bill is quite dangerous”, and he is “concerned about its overall effect on vulnerable people”.