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Starmer says Labour MPs must decide for themselves on assisted dying, refusing to say how he will vote
Good morning. Parliament passes important laws (as well as some rather tedious ones), but normally the process is predictable because the government is in charge and most of what it does foreshadowed in a manifesto. Once a minister says ‘X will become law’, usually it does.
But assisted dying is different because the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is trying to change the bill through the private member’s bill process, MPs will have a free vote and no one really has much of a clue as to what will happen. The main uncertainty is whether or not MPs will vote to give the bill a second reading when it is debated, on Friday 29 November. But even if it passes at second reading, given the jeopardy inherent in the private member’s bill process, it could still be touch and go whether it becomes law.
Leadbeater published her bill last night, and she is holding a briefing about it this morning. Here is our overnight story by Jessica Elgot, Harriet Sherwood and Kiran Stacey.
Even though Labour MPs will have a free vote, the views of ministers, and the prime minister, will still be influential. Keir Starmer voted in favour of assisted dying when the Commons last debated a bill (in 2015 – it was defeated by 33o votes to 118) and, when asked about this issue before the election, he always implied that, provided the safeguards were adequate, he would vote in favour again.
When he was director of public prosecutions in 2010, with parliament refusing to change the law and the CPS under pressure to prosecute people who had clearly helped terminally ill relatives to die out of kindness, not malice, Starmer issued new guidance on what might have to happen for the CPS to decide prosecution was not in the public interest. This did not change the law, but it was a bold move by a DPP clearly frustrated at the way the law was operating.
Now the bill is out, and Starmer can exame the safeguards, which are not trivial. But he still has not said definitely that he will vote for the bill. Speaking to reporters travelling with him at the Cop29 summit, he said Labour MPs would have to make up their own minds. He said:
Look, it’s going to be a free vote and I mean that. It will be for every MP to decide for themselves how they want to vote.
I’m not going to be putting any pressure whatsoever on Labour MPs. They will make their own mind up, as I will be.
Obviously a lot will depend on the detail and we need to get the balance right but I’ve always argued there will need to be proper safeguards in place.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Kim Leadbeater holds a press briefing about her assisted dying bill. Charlie Falconer, the former lord chancellor who has introduced similar legislation in the the Lords, and Sir Max Hill, the former director of public prosecutions and another supporter of the bill, are also attending.
11am (UK time): Keir Starmer is due to hold a press conference in Baku in Aberbaijan, where he is attending the Cop29 summit. Later he is due to give a speech confirming the government’s new target to cut emissions by 81% compared with 1990 levels by 2035.
After 12.30pm: MPs debate the remaining stages of the House of Lords (hereditary peers) bill.
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