It’s one of Westminster’s more flamboyant rituals. Deputy Speaker Nus Ghani donned white silk gloves and read out the numbers written on balls plucked from a glass fishbowl to determine which MPs had won parliamentary time for a Private Member’s Bill. The winners can choose any subject of their choice and eagerly watching campaigners now hope they can persuade one of the winners to adopt their cause: allowing the terminally ill assistance with dying.
A high-profile campaign by TV presenter and lung cancer sufferer Dame Esther Rantzen, alongside petitions and changing public attitudes, have driven the issue up the agenda. That means the MPs who won the draw on Thursday morning will face intense lobbying to introduce a bill to end the criminalisation of helping someone to end their life – which currently can lead to a jail term of up to 14 years under laws dating back to the 1960s.
Keir Starmer said during the election campaign that he was “personally committed” to allowing a vote on decriminalising assisted dying, and indicated he would devote it attention and grant his party a free vote.
The time has come for a fresh look, because the country risks being outpaced by its neighbours. Parliament’s temperature was last taken in 2015 when MPs voted against changing the law by 330 votes to 118. But a February report by the Health and Social Care Select Committee warned that approaches to this “difficult, sensitive and yet crucial” issue could soon diverge across the country because of legislative changes already under way in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Meanwhile, public attitudes are shifting. A poll by Opinium earlier this year, for the pro-assisted dying organisation Dignity in Dying, showed 75 per cent of respondents supported making it lawful for dying adults to access help.
Medical and legal opposition is also withering on the vine. The British Medical Association adopted a neutral stance in 2021. And as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, Starmer oversaw about 80 assisted dying cases and decided no prosecution should be brought in 79 of them.
But even as campaigners put pressure on MPs to sponsor a bill on assisted dying, the backlash against any change to the status quo has already begun. The debate is now set to become a feature of the Conservative leadership campaign after two sources close to Robert Jenrick told i that he has changed his mind and no longer backs assisted dying.
Jenrick, who emerged as the front-runner after comfortably coming top in the first round of voting among Tory MPs on Wednesday, has been on a political journey. Once seen as a liberal Tory and close friend of Rishi Sunak’s – the two played computer games together – Jenrick both stormed out of Sunak’s government over immigration while also becoming more socially conservative over the last few years. Despite voting for legalising assisted dying in 2015, his about-turn has been informed by Canada’s experience of changing the law, his allies said.
Canada legalised medical assistance in dying in 2016 for people with a terminal illness and expanded it in 2021 to people with incurable, but not terminal, conditions. More than 30,000 people have died under the programme since it was introduced, with take-up rising from 1,018 cases in 2016 to more than 13,241 in 2022. However, the changes have proved controversial with some insurers and private healthcare providers, and have come under fierce criticism for promoting euthanasia among the healthy elderly.
Critics in Canada say the scheme has gone too far and the vulnerable are under pressure to end their lives for non-medical reasons. Public outrage followed the case of an elderly woman who was given a lethal injection when she complained of isolation during a Covid lockdown.
In another instance, a pensioner in poverty was granted a euthanasia request because he feared he would be made homeless. Earlier this year, Canada had to delay an expansion to its programme for people who have a mental illness amid concerns its health service wasn’t ready to cope safely with demand.
During the general election campaign, Jenrick took a break from door-knocking to fly to Ottawa to meet Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, drawing inspiration from the party’s success in countering the liberal values of President Justin Trudeau. Poilievre, 20 points ahead of Trudeau in the polls, has pledged to revoke the expansion of the medically assisted dying programme if he wins the next election. It’s not hard to see why right-wing politicians might think the tide is turning against the idea and see political mileage in adopting a position on the issue.
Tory leadership candidate Mel Stride, who, like Jenrick, voted in favour of assisted dying in 2015, has also subtly altered his position. He told i that although “I would likely lean in favour” of allowing assisted dying if a vote comes before Parliament, he would want to see the details before committing. “It is a finely balanced decision which I wouldn’t now rule in or out; I would want to see the proposals,” he added.
Fellow leadership contender James Cleverly voted against assisted dying in 2015 and is understood not to have changed his position, but wants to support improving palliative care.
It’s not just on the right where there is hesitation. Labour’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a practising Christian, has said he is “uncharacteristically undecided” on the subject, but agrees it’s a debate whose “time has come”.
There are are also different suggestions about what any legislation would look like. A bill that would allow terminally ill adults with six months or fewer to live to get medical help to end their lives has been introduced in the House of Lords.
However, the proposal by former Labour justice secretary Lord (Charlie) Falconer is not likely to get very far as Private Members’ Bills introduced to the Upper House rarely become law.
Back at the bingo-like draw in the House of Commons on Thursday, there were 458 MPs who entered the ballot, with 20 balls drawn. The top seven are guaranteed time for a debate on their pet project outside of the legislative timetable controlled by the Government.
The winner was Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, sister of murdered MP Jo Cox. She may decide to pursue a bill against political violence or online hate speech or perhaps focus on one of her other areas of interest such as transport or her constituency.
Other, newbie MPs high on the list may find they lack the experience or confidence to lead a national conversation on the controversial subject of assisted dying. But past successes using the Private Members’ Bill route, such as laws against pet theft and underage marriage, show change is possible.
With a deadline of 16 October for members to decide on their bill, campaigners will be keeping their fingers crossed they can persuade one brave MP to adopt this thorny but important issue.
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