Keir Starmer is urged not to rush new laws to legalise assisted dying amid fears it could put lives at risk _ Hieuuk
Sir Keir Starmer was last night told not to rush new laws to legalise assisted dying amid fears it could put lives at risk.
The Prime Minister is privately paving the way for a controversial vote on the issue before Christmas, The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday.
Labour MPs who secured a top spot to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to the Commons are being urged to take up the proposal.
One backbencher told the MoS he had been offered two extra staff to help him draft a Bill if he proposed legalising assisted dying.
Labour backbencher Jake Richards, who came 11th in the ballot, has offered to put forward an assisted dying Bill, but is too low to be guaranteed a chance to debate it.
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned not to rush to legalise assisted dying over fears it could put lives at risk
Alistair Thompson, a spokesman for Care Not Killing, said that rushed through legislation was much more likely to be ‘less rigorous in terms of safeguards’
A Labour source said it had been ‘made clear’ to MPs at the top of the ballot that Sir Keir ‘backs a change in the law’.
But last night Care Not Killing, an organisation which promotes palliative care and opposes assisted dying and euthanasia, said rushing through legislation would put lives at risk.
Alistair Thompson, a spokesman for the group, told the Mail: ‘To be offering extra staff members to MPs is appalling and underhand.
‘Any Bill that is rushed through is much more likely to be less rigorous in terms of safeguards and lead to more people feeling pressured into ending their life prematurely.’
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He added: ‘You have to be incredibly careful when considering this Bill and any attempt to rush it through is likely to put lives at risk.’
Reform MP Lee Anderson also said he did not think it should be ‘rushed’, tweeting: ‘I do not think this should be rushed but I do think we need a full and frank debate on the issue.’
After winning the election in July, Sir Keir said he remained committed to giving MPs a free vote on assisted dying laws but said his government had other priorities ‘for the first year or so’.
Cabinet ministers are also divided on the issue: Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary has spoken against it and Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said he is undecided.
Yet Sir Keir has said he is ‘personally in favour of changing the law’, and gave a commitment to terminally ill television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen, who is campaigning on the issue, that he would ensure there is parliamentary time for a debate.
Last night she told the Mail that she was ‘extremely grateful’ to the Prime Minister ‘for making time for this crucial debate’.
Campaigners in support of assisted dying protest outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London
The Prime Minister gave a commitment to terminally ill TV presenter Dame Esther Rantzen to ensure time for a parliamentary debate on the issue
‘When I talked to him before the election he told me he understood the need for the debate, and very kindly said he hoped I would be alive to hear it,’ she said.
‘At the time I thought that was extremely unlikely, but thanks to one of the new miracle drugs which seems to be holding my stage 4 lung cancer at bay, it may come true.’
She added: ‘If the current messy criminal law were to change, it would give me a new hope – that I can have a good, pain free death in my own home surrounded by those I love.
‘And that hope would transform my last months and weeks and bring the sunshine back for me and all those like me, whose time is running out.’
Dignity in Dying’s CEO, Sarah Wootton, added: ‘The time for law change on assisted dying has clearly come for our country. Dying people simply do not have time to wait.’
