Three Labour MPs to change vote and oppose assisted dying bill

Three Labour MPs have publicly said they will now vote against the assisted dying bill, having either voted in favour or abstained at second reading.

Crawley MP Peter Lamb, Pendle and Clitheroe MP Jonathan Hinder and Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams have each said publicly they will now oppose the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at third reading when the vote is held sometime next month.

In a detailed piece on his website, Peter Lamb said he had “changed my view on what the right thing to do is more than once” but said: “When it comes to the practical questions, the arguments against such a change begin to stack up very quickly.”

He said: “Truth be told, I had thought that making up my mind on this would be easy. Assisted dying has always seemed to be the next great liberal reform and having been successful in the Private Member’s Bill ballot, I had considered proposing the bill myself, only being put off by knowing that I was too far down the list for there to be sufficient parliamentary time for full consideration of the bill.

“At the end of this process, I have come to believe that whatever the good motivations of those proposing this bill, the ethical argument they have put forward exists only so long as effective palliative care is not delivered and that despite the carefully thought-out safeguards included within the bill, its implementation and the wider consequences will go far further than they have considered.

“On that basis, I do not believe that the case has been made for a change in the law, and I therefore believe I am obligated to oppose the passage of the bill through the remaining stages of the process.”

Jonathan Hinder, in a post on social media, said that while he voted in favour of the principle of assisted dying in November, his concerns have deepened as the bill progressed through committee stage.

He said: “We were told that the proposed safeguards were the strictest in the world, only for the approval of a High Court judge to be removed shortly after second reading. To me, this is the most obvious indicator that this bill has been rushed and a lot more work needs to be done to make it practicable and safe.

“There may be such a bill in future that I could support, but this is not it. I will vote against.”

Debbie Abrahams confirmed to The Telegraph she would vote against the bill after abstaining in November, with MP for Kingston-upon-Hull East Karl Turner also telling the newspaper that he will abstain at third reading after backing the bill at second reading.

It comes amid intense debate in the Commons this afternoon during the bill’s report stage.

Only 28 MPs would need to switch their vote for the assisted dying bill to fail at third reading, with that vote expected to take place sometime next month.

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