The Labour MP behind the assisted dying bill has said she has no doubts “whatsoever” about her legislation, rejecting claims it could lead to a slippery slope.
Issuing a last-minute broadcast intervention to persuade MPs to legalise assisted dying, Kim Leadbeater rejected claims from her own government ministers that the bill is not sufficiently watertight.
She told Sky News: “I don’t have any doubts whatsoever. I wouldn’t put the Bill forward if I did.
“What I’m very clear about is we have got people now who the law is failing. We have got people taking their own lives.
“We have got families losing loved ones in very harrowing circumstances and we have got people having very painful deaths … so there is a very clear problem that needs to be solved.
“By creating a legal framework, we will improve the situation.”
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Liz Kendall insisted there is no cause for fear around the Bill (Image: BBC)
MPs will vote on the Bill this coming Friday, with the party whips taking a back seat and allowing members of parliament to vote however they want.
It’s not known how the vote will go, with 64 Labour MPs currently going on the record in favour of the change, 33 against.
The Cabinet itself remains divided, despite the Cabinet Secretary asking members not to get actively involved in the debate.
14 members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, are thought to be supportive, while 9 are expected to vote it down.
Yesterday the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall reiterated her support for Assisted Dying, insisting that the safeguards in the Bill “are much stronger” than the last time it was voted on in 2015.
She argued: “I believe in giving people as much power, say and control as possible over the things that matter to them most”.
“I believe the Bill has the right safeguards to make sure that can be done properly.”
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Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is one of the most vocal opponents of the Bill (Image: Getty)
Ms Kendall rejected arguments against assisted dying by both the Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, the latter of whom recently told constituents that the safeguards in the Bill are “particularly weak”.
She insisted the Bill is very clear it requires someone contemplating assisted dying to be terminally ill, to have two independent doctors agree they are of sound mind and are not under pressure, and a high court judge.
In an astonishing intervention this weekend, the Justice Secretary blasted the legislation as a “state death service”, warning constituents she is “profoundly concerned” in a letter to her Birmingham constituents.
She argued that recent scandals in the public sector, including Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon affair, should act as a reminder that the State and those acting on its behalf “are not always benign”.
She continued: “I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away. The state should never offer death as a service.”
“It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald. In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves.
This weekend Gordon Brown became the latest senior Labour figure to oppose the Bill, saying the death of his newborn daughter in 2002 convinced him of the “value and imperative of good end-of-life care”.
He argued that the debate has been too quick given the “profound ethical and practical issues” at stake.
Ms Kendall argued people will “always disagree” over assisted dying, and that the core issue is about the “right to choose”.
She insisted the debate is “much bigger” than the Westminster soap opera of which side each Cabinet Minister is on, arguing it’s essential for society to have a debate about the fact many people will experience “longer deaths”.
Senior Conservative Kevin Hollinrake also came out yesterday [SUN] to back the Bill, saying he wishes the choice had been available when his mother passed away in “very difficult circumstances”.
He also argued that the right checks and balances are in the Bill, insisting: “We’re not oblivious to the concerns that people raise, things like coercion”.
“But I think people should have the right to choose. You should have dominion over your body and your soul. So, I think it’s really important that people are given that choice, both in Parliament, of course, the vote on Friday, but, ultimately, the decision for people to end their life in this way.”