Lammy says he voted against bill recalling his mum, and how she worried about being financial burden when terminally ill
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just released a letter to his constituents explaining why he voted against the assisted dying bill. He says he worries that, if assisted dying had been allowed when his mother was dying, she might have taken if as an option to avoid being a financial burden on her family in her final months.
Cabinet ministers were asked not to try to sway the debate on assisted dying before the vote today, because the government is meant to be neutral, and so presumably Lammy held back his comments until now in keeping with that guidance. Other cabinet ministers were more willing to get stuck in.
Key events
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Thinktank says there many questions still be be answered about how NHS might administer assisted dying
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Lammy says he voted against bill recalling his mum, and how she worried about being financial burden when terminally ill
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Rishi Sunak explains why he voted for assisted dying bill
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How MPs voted on assisted dying bill, by party affiliation
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MPs vote for assisted dying bill by majority of 55
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MPs vote on assisted dying bill
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Robert Jenrick claims bill will be changed ‘fundamentally’ by ‘activist judges in Strasbourg’ if it’s passed
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No 10 hints Louise Haigh’s resignation linked to breach of ministerial code
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David Davis backs bill, but says government should allocate four days for its report stage debate
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Heidi Alexander becomes transport secretary
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Badenoch says she’s against bill, citing teenager gender treatment as example of why NHS safeguards too weak
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Death, for many, is ‘misery, torture and degredation’, not something noble, says Kit Malthouse, backing bill
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Diane Abbott says she worries about people feeling they have to die because they’re burden,
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Kruger urges MPs not to back ‘state suicide service’ and ‘worse world, with different idea of human value’
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Danny Kruger urges MPs to vote down bill if they have reservations, as he gives opening speech from its opponents
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Leadbeater rejects claims bill will be ‘slippery slope’, leading to scope of assisted dying being expanded
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Leadbeater says she is open to toughening wording of bill to protect people with learning disabilities
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Kim Leadbeater opens debate on her assisted dying bill
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Speaker says MPs will not get vote on amendment that would have blocked bill to allow full policy review instead
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How the debate, and voting, will take place
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What is the real view on the assisted dying bill in Downing Street?
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MPs to start debating assisted dying bill at 9.30am
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Haigh says her conviction based on ‘genuine mistake’, and claims court accepted this
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Tories say Starmer’s decision to put Haigh in cabinet when he knew of her conviction ‘obvious failure of judgment’
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Starmer tells Haigh she has ‘huge contribution to make in future’ as he accepts her resignation
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Louise Haigh resigns as UK transport secretary after admitting phone offence
Thinktank says there many questions still be be answered about how NHS might administer assisted dying
The Nuffield Trust, a health thinktank, says there are many questions to be answered as the bill progresses through parliament about how assisted dying might work. In a statement on today’s vote, Thea Stein, its chief executive, says:
As this bill progresses through parliament, MPs will need to carefully consider how such a change in the law would interact with the NHS and social care. There are large unanswered questions around funding, staffing and equity if this bill becomes law.
In particular, it is still unclear whether or not assisted dying would be fully publicly funded. If it is, it will sit alongside services like social care and hospice care which are not. Both of these services are financially on the brink and MPs will need to understand how current threadbare provision will interact with this new service, what implications this may have for people paying for social care, and how to fund assisted dying from a health budget that is already overstretched. If assisted dying is not publicly funded then it will be difficult for the bill to achieve its aim of improving choice for all patients. These are crucial questions to address in the next stage.MPs will also need to scrutinise and debate the staffing and regulatory questions this throws up. Will NHS trusts be able or expected to provide this service? Will medical professionals carry out this work privately or as part of their NHS contract? Who will regulate this service? And what changes will be needed to training and education to ensure staff have the skills and knowledge to deliver it?
Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA
Lammy says he voted against bill recalling his mum, and how she worried about being financial burden when terminally ill
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just released a letter to his constituents explaining why he voted against the assisted dying bill. He says he worries that, if assisted dying had been allowed when his mother was dying, she might have taken if as an option to avoid being a financial burden on her family in her final months.
Cabinet ministers were asked not to try to sway the debate on assisted dying before the vote today, because the government is meant to be neutral, and so presumably Lammy held back his comments until now in keeping with that guidance. Other cabinet ministers were more willing to get stuck in.
Here is video of the moment the result was announced.
Six cabinet ministers were among the Labour MPs voting against the bill: Angela Rayner, deputy PM; David Lammy, foreign secretary; Wes Streeting, health secretary; Shabana Mahmood, justice secretary; Bridget Phillipson, education secretary; and Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, and Anneliese Dodds, the development minister, also voted against. They both attend cabinet, but are not full cabinet ministers.
Rishi Sunak explains why he voted for assisted dying bill
Rishi Sunak was one of the 23 Tory MPs who voted for the bill. But until today he had not commented on the issue. He has now published an article for the Darlington and Stockton Times explaining why he is in favour. Here is an extract.
I believe that, where possible, we should prevent suffering. I know from speaking and listening to many of you, that too many people have to go through painful, traumatic, drawn-out deaths. These moving, deeply personal stories have left a profound impression on me. This bill will make these ordeals, which are so traumatic for patients and their families, less frequent: it will reduce suffering. The worry with legislation such as this is always that it could be abused, used to pressure people into ending their lives; or as a way to remove those who are perceived as a burden to the state or their family. But my judgement is that this bill is sufficiently tightly drawn to prevent that. Pressuring someone into ending their life will be a criminal offence and under this bill, people can only request help to die if they have a terminal disease that they will pass away from within the next 6 months in the independent, professional opinion of two doctors.
Here is the graphic from the Commons website illustrating the voting.
How MPs voted on assisted dying bill, by party affiliation
Here are the number of MPs voting by party.
Conservatives: 23
Independent: 1
Greens: 4
Labour: 234
Lib Dems: 61
Plaid Cymru: 3
Reform UK: 3
SDLP: 1
Alliance: 1
Conservatives: 92
DUP: 5
Independents: 14
Labour: 147
Lib Dems: 11
Plaid Cymru: 1
Reform UK: 2
TUV: 1
UUP: 1
Conservatives: 3
Deputy Speakers: 3
Labour: 18
SNP: 9
Sinn Fêin: 7
SDLP: 1
Speaker: 1
The division list for the vote is now on the Commons’ website.
Keir Starmer was seen having a chat with Nigel Farage in the chamber as the division was taking place. This is from the i’s Eleanor Langford.
Keir Starmer is now in the Chamber having just cast his vote on the assisted dying bill
He had a quick chat with Nigel Farage before taking his seat on the front bench
Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says the Commons is now moving on to deal with a bill about ferrets (the animal welfare [import of dogs, cats and ferrets] bill – another private member’s bill, tabled by Danny Chambers) and he suggests some MPs might want to leave the chamber.
Kim Leadbeater, sponsor of the bill, is moving a motion saying the public bill committee for the bill should have the power to take evidence.
That goes through on the nod.
(Normally government bills committees have this power, but not committees dealing with private members’ bills.)
MPs vote for assisted dying bill by majority of 55
The Speaker is reading out the results:
Ayes: 330
Noes: 275
Keir Starmer has voted for the bill.
The tellers for the ayes are Sarah Owen and Bambos Charalambous.
And the tellers for the noes are Harriett Baldwin and Florence Eshalomi.
