MPs will vote on whether to legalise assisted suicide in the UK today, with the result on a knife-edge.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet and all the major political parties are heavily divided on changing the law to allow medics to help the terminally ill end their lives without fear of prosecution.
They will vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, introduced by Labour‘s Kim Leadbeater, this afternoon amid emotional campaigns run by those for and against the change.
More than 100 MPs are expected to try to speak during a debate starting this morning and expected to last five hours. But critics of the law change have suggested it is being forced through too quickly.
If approved, the Bill would allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults to seek an assisted death with the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
The issue has crossed political demarcations – with former Labour prime ministers coming out against it and ex-Tory premiers in favour – and MPs will have a free vote allowing them to go with their conscience rather than party lines.
The splits have even affected smaller parties, with Reform leader Nigel Farage planning to vote against it, but Reform MP Rupert Lowe saying he will vote for it, after polling his constituents.
Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who plans to vote against the bill, last night tweeted: ‘Tomorrow we’ll have 100+ MPs trying to speak (most for a rushed minute or two) during a ludicrously curtailed, hasty debate with hundreds more voting.
‘I just don’t think we’ve remotely considered this unspeakably serious issue in this kind of depth. We must reject this.’
While a majority of the MPs to publicly declare their position have come out in favour of introducing one of the most significant social changes in Britain’s history, the outcome still remains shrouded in uncertainty.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he would vote today, saying he has a ‘huge amount of interest’ in the issue, but he declined to specify on which side he would come down.
Meanwhile Ms Leadbeater spoke of being ‘emotionally ruined’ by weeks of campaigning and told how she can no longer walk down the street without somebody revealing a personal story.
An analysis of vote trackers suggests a majority of MPs will back the Bill, with more than 200 known to be likely to support a change in the law based on public statements or past votes. Around 150 were last night thought to be ready to vote against the Bill.
More than 80 per cent of the Commons had declared their positions yesterday, according to a Times poll of MPs which gave supporters the largest lead with 267 in favour of reforming the law.
But with a significant number of MPs not publicly declaring their position, the outcome is almost impossible to predict accurately.
The last time there was a binding vote on changing the law, in 2015, it was defeated by 331 votes to 119. But each side now accepts the debate has moved on and a series of recent polls have suggested that a majority of the public are now in favour of reform.
Speaking yesterday ahead of the debate, Ms Leadbeater said she hopes the Bill will pass and that this parliament will be remembered for its ‘major social reform’.
She added: ‘I hope parliament will show itself at its best and most compassionate and that MPs will show themselves, as they have in the past when major social reforms have come before them, ready to correct injustice and reduce human suffering.’
But others were staunch in their opposition to the Bill. Actress and disability activist Liz Carr urged MPs to vote against it as she said many disabled people are ‘terrified’ of it being approved.
Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson echoed her call and warned that disabled people are ‘really worried’.
The former athlete, who would have a vote on the Bill if it passed through to the Lords, said: ‘I can’t see safeguards that would be OK, that wouldn’t risk some people having their lives ended without them wanting to.’
It came as a number of prominent figures made their voting intentions public last night. Solicitor General Sarah Sackman KC said she would vote for the Bill out of a ‘respect for individual autonomy’.
But shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson said he would oppose the Bill, declaring that MPs are being asked to ‘vote in the dark’.
Home Office minister Seema Malhotra also said she would vote against the proposed new laws yesterday, but added that decisions should be made on a ‘secular basis’ with religion left out of the debate. It comes after Lord Cameron, who previously voted against the practice, announced that he now intended backing the Bill. His intervention came after Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Gordon Brown all stated they are against the proposed legislation.
Meanwhile, the UK’s human rights watchdog warned the end-of-life Bill could push people into considering an assisted death because of the ‘postcode lottery’ of palliative care access.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which said it is neutral on assisted dying, also warned there has been an ‘insufficiently detailed analysis’ of the implications for human rights.
