Assisted dying bill: ‘Last minute’ changes push party splits into open once more

Labour divides over assisted dying have flared in public again after Kim Leadbeater made a “last-minute” change to how cases would be approved, generating a mixed reaction from her fellow MPs.

The private members bill sponsor announced in an op-ed in The Guardian that she would change her bill such that assisted dying cases would be signed off by a multidisciplinary expert panel – instead of by a High Court judge. The panel would include a lawyer, a psychiatrist, and a social worker.

She said she had decided to make the change after paying “careful attention” to expert evidence, in the hope that it would make her bill more robust without making the system “so difficult” for people to navigate “in the last months of their lives”. There are also reported concerns about court capacity.

She wrote: “The evidence we have heard from other jurisdictions that have already introduced tightly drawn laws like mine is that fears about vulnerable people being pressured into asking for an assisted death have rarely, if ever, been borne out in practice.

“But I have promised to do everything I can to ensure my bill has the strongest safeguards anywhere in the world, and this change will meet that promise by making it even more robust than it was already.”

‘Changing the model at the last minute is a bit sketchy’

However, the decision was subject to an immediate backlash.

Labour MP Florence Eshalomi called it a “farce” as she warned that the frontline workers could be “overwhelmed”.

Sharing an article about the change on X, she said: “The key safeguard that was used to persuade MPs who raised valid questions about the bill has now been dropped. To say this is worrying is an understatement.”

One Labour MP told LabourList: “It addresses a lot of concerns but changing the model at the last minute is a bit sketchy.”

The amendment to the bill may also prompt concerns that MPs will have even less time to debate the legislation at third reading, with only five hours set to be granted to debate and vote on the bill and any proposed changes.

READ MORE:  ‘The assisted dying bill is rightly facing unprecedented scrutiny’

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, also criticised the late timing of the change, noting that it was “humanly impossible” to read all of the written evidence, with “lots coming in late”.

“The campaign for assisted dying got people through second reading on the basis of detailed scrutiny. This is a bill committee and we now need to be serious about the heavy lifting of legislating, not campaigning. The new amendment has not been published so it’s only the proposer who knows what is actually says.

She added: “On a practical level where are these social workers and psychiatrists coming from? Our constituents can’t get social work or mental health support when they need it. Legislating doesn’t solve those practicalities.”

The changes ‘genuinely strengthen’ the bill

One source close to Labour MPs concerned about the bill said: “MPs voted on the promise of High Court scrutiny; it was a cornerstone of the bill. Bouncing MPs into such fundamental changes, hours before scrutiny of the bill begins, undermines trust in the process and breaks the promises made by the bill’s proposers.

“This process now feels out of control, with the proponents of this bill making substantial changes to the foundations of the bill as they go along.

“This is on probably the most meaningful piece of law many MPs in Parliament will ever consider. None of this does justice to the gravity of the decisions being made or the people who will be affected by this bill.”

However, Jake Richards, the Labour MP for Rother Valley defended the change, saying it “genuinely strengthens” the Bill.

“A high court judge does not have any expertise to spot coercion or issues with capacity, as opposed to experts on a panel. This is the result of listening to those worried about coercion and control.”

Read more about the assisted dying bill:

• Kim Leadbeater: ‘The assisted dying bill is rightly facing unprecedented scrutiny’
• ‘I’m an ex-hospice nurse with long-term conditions. I don’t want to die in pain’
• ‘Why I and other Labour MPs are struggling with the arguments around assisted dying’
• ‘Why legalising assisted dying would create a “two-tier” system in our NHS’

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