Sunak joins Starmer in confirming he would allow parliamentary time for assisted dying debate

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in indicating he would allow Parliamentary time for a new debate on assisted dying, as hopes grow that the next Parliament will grasp the issue.

At a meeting at Downing Street this week with assisted dying campaigner Matt Ryan, whose father and sister both suffered prolonged and painful deaths from cancer (multiple myeloma and sarcoma respectively), the Prime Minister said he was “very sympathetic” to the family’s experience.

The Prime Minister said:

“What the Government has always said, and I would commit to this of course, is if Parliament decided that it wanted to change the law then of course the Government would facilitate doing that in a way that was legally effective,”.

Following Sir Keir Starmer’s comments in December that he personally believes there are grounds to change the law and would commit parliamentary time for debate, the Labour and Conservative leaders are now in agreement that there should be a full, free and fair debate within the next Parliament – a result that dying people and their families have been calling for.

Assisted dying will be a key issue for candidates at the next General Election, with soaring public support for reform, the first ever House of Commons inquiry currently examining the issue, and high-profile interventions from figures including Dame Esther Rantzen and the late Dame Diana Rigg. A petition launched by Dame Esther, Dignity in Dying and the Daily Express calling for parliamentary time and a free vote on assisted dying has secured more than 100,000 signatures in less than a month and is expected to be debated by MPs in the coming months.

Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying said:

“Assisted dying will get the time it needs to be fully and fairly debated in the next Parliament. That is the promise made by both the Conservative and Labour leaders, if they are successful in their respective bids to become our next Prime Minister.

“This is a significant breakthrough for Dignity in Dying’s campaign and for thousands of dying people and their families fighting for this choice. Our outdated laws condemn terminally ill people to agonising deaths against their wishes, force many to take matters into their own hands at home and abroad, and criminalise acts of genuine compassion. Meanwhile, mounting evidence from 30 jurisdictions around the world shows us there is a better, safer, kinder way.

“With an imminent General Election, it now falls to parliamentary candidates to set out where they stand on this issue. Voters deserve to know which political parties and candidates will give assisted dying the time and attention it deserves, and which will cling to a status quo that is unsafe, unfair, unequal and more than six decades out of date.”

Assisted dying campaigner Matt Ryan, who visited Downing Street on Monday in a meeting organised by the Daily Express, which launched its Give Us Our Last Rights campaign in 2022 with his father’s story, said:

 

“The Prime Minister was very understanding. He really had taken the time to think about the issue. The fact that he had read Dad’s submission to the Commons inquiry was incredible. Dad would have been so proud to have heard the Prime Minister saying that in Downing Street.

“I believed the Prime Minister when he said the Government would ensure there was time to fully debate an assisted dying bill, if one was introduced that had parliamentary support. From what I have personally seen and heard, the mood among MPs is certainly shifting.

“Although the Prime Minister couldn’t give his personal view on whether the law should change, he did say he was sympathetic to our case. This is an important signal to his party – we must not close this conversation down.”

Repeated polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of the British public support the introduction of assisted dying as an option for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. A survey of Mumsnet members released this week revealed that nearly nine out of 10 (87%) of the site’s users would back a change in the law, with the website throwing its weight behind the campaign.

Support for reform is consistent across all age groups, walks of life and political views, with large majorities of voters across all parliamentary parties indicating support, a major poll by Populus (now Yonder) in 2019 revealed.

Assisted dying bills are being considered in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man, an inquiry is underway in Ireland, and a bill is expected to be introduced in France this year. Four hundred million people across Europe, North and South America and Australasia live in jurisdictions that have legalised or decriminalised assisted dying in some form.

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For further information and interviews, please contact Will Harris at Boardwalk Communications at will@the-boardwalk.co.uk, or call 07976 622965.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives in Downing Street
25/10/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives in Downing Street. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street