Labour MPs: Assisted suicide Bill "irredeemably flawed"

A group of Labour parliamentarians have told party colleagues that Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill is "irredeemably flawed and unfit to become law".

This week, Committee scrutiny of the legislation concluded - a six-week process that saw MPs consider more than 500 amendments.

Critics of the bill have noted that less than 1 in 5 amendments eventually agreed were from people who had concerns about the Bill.

Labour MPs on the committee have argued that this process failed to address fundamental problems with the proposal.

In a letter published yesterday, the MPs describe the Bill as "flawed and dangerous" and say they cannot recommend a vote in favour of it.

The letter warns of a watering down of safeguards, and lists concerns about the impact on children and people with anorexia.

It also notes a lack of clarity about how assisted deaths would be actioned, saying a private, for-profit service could be involved.

Speaking as Committee scrutiny came to a close, CARE's Director of Advocacy and Policy Caroline Ansell said:

“That more than five hundred amendments were tabled to change the bill shows how unsafe it was – it still is. Over the last weeks, amendments carefully designed to give protections to vulnerable groups have been systemically voted down by Bill supporters on the committee.

“Significant changes have been made to the Bill on judicial oversight. Hospices may lose their funding if they don’t agree to deliver assisted suicide. The 1946 founding principles of our health service - conferring a duty on the Government to improve physical and mental health - are to be overwritten to allow the NHS to deal with ending life. The Bill also provides ministers with discretion to commission for-profit providers to end the lives of the terminally ill.

“Many MPs voted for the Bill last year in the understanding that it could be improved and made safe through scrutiny down the line. This has not happened. Instead, scrutiny has been biased and rushed. This is no way to legislate on any issue, let alone an issue of life and death. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is riddled with problems. Wherever MPs stand on the principle behind it, they should reject it at Third Reading.”