Assisted dying bill sponsor launches debate with criticism of Lords
Labor MP Lauren Edwards The bill’s sponsor speaks first.
In the previous session of Parliament, she criticized the House of Lords for what she said was obstruction of the assisted dying bill.
“Many members would no doubt prefer to work in their constituencies today. because a small number of colleagues elsewhere chose to prevent any vote on the merits of this bill.” she said.
“This decision means that one of the most important national conversations we have had as legislators has been abruptly stopped. And who will suffer as a result? Obviously, the terminally ill and their families, who rightly assumed that the will of the people they elected to represent them in this chamber would be respected.”
Key events
“Mental ability and mental health are not the same thing,” says a Labor MP.
Labor MP Ashley Dalton who was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, said the assisted dying bill does not adequately protect people with treatable depression who also have a terminal illness.
Her concern is that depression can sometimes contribute to suicidal feelings but can also be treated, while the bill does not clearly explain where the line should be drawn between a person requesting an assisted death because of their terminal illness and a person whose wish to die may be affected by treatable depression. She argued that stronger protections were needed.
The former Health Secretary told the House of Commons:
A person can be suicidal and have unmet mental health needs before they develop a terminal illness, and then ask the state to kill them, without any assessment of their mental health, just their mental capacity.
Mental ability and mental health are not the same thing.”
She added that the bill’s six-month forecast “is something that no one can ever be sure of”, adding: “I have been told by palliative care specialists that palliative care can help me when I die.”
Labor MP says terminally ill mother decided to take her own life after ‘screaming in pain for weeks’
The Labor MP has revealed her mother decided to take her own life aged 61 while suffering from an advanced terminal illness.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Claire Hazelgrove who supports the assisted dying bill, said her mother, Ruth Hazelgrove, died alone in October after living half her life with a rare blood cancer.
The MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke in Gloucestershire said:
Luckily, she was able to watch us grow and meet her grandchildren. Mom loved life and laughter, and our family will remember her that way.
In early 2024, she was told that her condition had deteriorated significantly. That fall, while we were discussing the original version of this bill, my mother’s pain was excruciating.
She had access to good palliative care, but we learned the hard way that not all pain can be relieved. I will never forget how she writhed and screamed in pain for weeks.”
Zubair Ahmed: “The social and palliative care system is not ready to provide assistance in dying”
Returning to the House of Commons debate on assisted dying. Zubir Ahmedtransplant surgeon and former Labor Health Secretary, said the social and palliative care system I am not ready for such a change in legislation.
The Labor MP for Glasgow South West said:
I am now more convinced than ever that our social and palliative care system is simply not prepared – at least not in a fair sense – to meet the demands of this Bill.
The bill itself, when taken from the laboratory of this legislative text and sent to the hospital and clinical frontier, will not serve its laudable purposes of providing choice and control for the preventative, rapid death that I know many desire and respect as a result of this legislation.”
He added:
I have to be honest with you. When I’m asked to predict whether a person has six months to live or not, I’m wrong as often as I’m right.
This is not a good enough marker for DWP. [Department for Work and Pensions] no longer pay benefits for life-limiting conditions. I don’t see why that should be a good enough marker to assign death.”
Green Party ‘underdog’ in Holborn and St Pancras by-elections, says Polanski
Helena Horton
Speaking shortly after the announcement, Polanski recognized by the Green Party is an “outsider” in the by-elections.
He said:
The Greens may lose this election, but we have the momentum and we can win.
“And it’s clear that everyone knows it’s the Green Party versus Labour, and until May we had one councilor here and now we have 10. And last weekend we had so many people on the streets that we handed out leaflets to the whole constituency in just a few hours.”
Having declared him as their candidate, Hannah Spencer MP for Gorton and Denton admitted that the Labor Party had an advantage.
She said:
The next few weeks will certainly be difficult. Labor has donations from fossil fuel and gambling industry lobbyists and has a big machine. But we are supported by caring people, and we have shown that we can defeat the establishment parties, the billionaires, and I am living proof of this.”
Polanski said he lived in the constituency when he moved to London 20 years ago and that his hairdresser is still there.
Helena Horton
Making a statement, Green MP Hannah Spencer said that Polanski was “someone who always speaks up for people, someone who is not afraid of constant attempts to undermine him or break him, someone who is sensitive, someone who always does everything with the best intentions, someone who is a human being like the rest of us.”
Read the full report here:
Polanski announced as Green Party candidate for Holborn and St Pancras by-elections
Zac Polanski has been announced as the Green Party’s candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-elections.
The Green Party leader was chosen by local members after standing against Camden councilor Hamza Chowdhury.
The by-election, which will take place on October 8, was triggered by Keir Starmer’s resignation as MP for the constituency. Labor won the seat with a majority of more than 11,500 at the 2024 general election, but the Greens are hoping to mount a strong challenge as the fight is also seen as an early election test for Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
My colleague Helena Horton is awaiting the Green Party’s announcement of its candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-elections. According to her, the concert hall is full of excited greenies who are in high spirits. “Not surprisingly, the general consensus among them is that the chosen candidate will be frontrunner Zac Polanski.”
Conservative MP Karen Bradley said previous supporters of the assisted dying bill should not feel “ashamed” in opposing the proposal now.
She told the Commons: “You don’t have to give up the vote you cast last time to vote differently today.
“You don’t have to decide that assisted dying can never be right. You don’t have to give up the compassion that led you to support this principle.
“You only have to wonder whether this bill in this form, on the evidence before us today, is safe enough for parliament to pass it.”
She added: “There would be something deeply wrong with a parliament whose members felt bound by the previous vote, despite everything they had learned.”
Outside Parliament, supporters and opponents of the assisted dying bill gathered to voice their views as MPs debated the legislation in the House of Commons today:
Badenoch urges caution over ‘poorly drafted’ assisted dying bill
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned against attempts to ram through a “poorly drafted” assisted dying bill, PA reports.
Badenoch, who opposes the legislation, told the news agency:
I have serious concerns about the bill itself.
It’s rushed, poorly put together – and I say this as someone who is not against euthanasia in principle.
I think we need to be very careful about what we do.
I don’t think our NHS is ready, and I think this should be something the government does thoughtfully, not a private bill, let alone one that has previously failed, that they are trying to push through with government numbers.
I think this is wrong.”