Leaked documents reveal the Labour Party considered using its influence to legalise assisted suicide via a Private Member’s Bill (PMB), rather than as Government policy.
According to a policy document seen by The Guardian and the BBC, when in opposition in November 2023, the party suggested that assisted suicide “polls well, particularly amongst hero voters” in areas with higher age demographics that “we must win back”.
The party favoured using a Private Member’s Bill as the vehicle for a law to allow assisted suicide for those deemed to be “terminally ill and have a prognosis of less than six months left to live”, similar criteria to the proposals made in Kim Leadbeater’s Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords.
Dignity in Dying
The document argued that a Government Bill would carry more risks by the party taking an official stance on the issue, while a Private Member’s Bill could be “influenced heavily through the PMB process if we are lending government support”.
“We also know we can control the parameters of legislation carefully through working with advocacy groups and government civil servants to draft the legislation and provide conditions for parliamentary time.”
Dignity in Dying, formerly known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and the principal campaign group pushing for a change in the law, was referenced eleven times in the document.
‘No consultation’
An anonymous Labour source commented: “It’s bitterly disappointing that No 10 have sought to use the machinery of government and other parties as cover on an issue that needs more scrutiny, not less.”
They warned that the leaked document demonstrates a “shadow policymaking process, outside of the Labour manifesto, and with no consultation with MPs, unions or members, that sought to evade scrutiny on an issue of huge importance”.
A Labour spokesperson stated: “It’s completely normal for a wide range of policy proposals to be assessed by political parties in opposition. MPs have been able to vote with their conscience on the terminally ill adults bill throughout its passage through parliament and the government has not taken a position.”
Scrutiny
The UK Government, which has declared itself to be neutral on Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, has allocated a further ten days for the House of Lords to consider more than a thousand remaining amendments to her proposals. So far, only twenty-eight have been debated.
Activists have branded the unprecedented number of amendments a delaying tactic, but others insist that debating amendments is necessary due to the lack of “due diligence and proper pre-legislative scrutiny”.
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