Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised earlier this year to give lawmakers a free vote on the issue, meaning Labour, which won an election in July, will not instruct its members how to vote…reports Asian Lite News
British lawmakers will soon consider whether to give terminally ill adults a choice to end their own lives with medical assistance, after what proponents sayis a shift in public opinion since a similar measure was rejected a decade ago.
Kim Leadbeater, a lawmaker from Britain’s governing Labour Party who won a ballot giving her the right to introduce a bill on a subject of her choice, confirmed on Thursday that she would present a bill on assisted dying on Oct. 16.
“I … strongly believe that we should give people facing the most unbearable end to their life a choice about what that end is like,” she wrote in The Guardian newspaper.
The law is expected to allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less left to live to choose whether to end their lives, and allow medics to help them. Under current law, assisting suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised earlier this year to give lawmakers a free vote on the issue, meaning Labour, which won an election in July, will not instruct its members how to vote. Other parties have also told their members they can vote according to their consciences.
A number of lawmakers from all of Britain’s major parties remain sceptical, notably expressing concern that terminally ill patients who are vulnerable and feel they are being a burden to their families could face pressure to end their lives.
“While I deeply respect the debate, I have yet to see legislation that fully addresses concerns around coercion or doubt,” Labour lawmaker James Frith wrote on X. “If a vote were held today, I would vote against assisted dying.”
Those who accompany relatives choosing euthanasia in places such as Switzerland, where it has been legal since 1942, can now face prosecution in Britain for assisting suicide.
In recent years, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some U.S. states have legalised assisted dying under certain circumstances. Within the UK, the devolved parliament in Scotland, which sets its own laws on such matters, is considering similar legislation.
Polling of 2,000 Britons published by research group Savanta on Friday showed 48% supported it, 21% opposed it, 22% say they neither support or oppose it and the rest don’t know.
“This is a historic opportunity to bring about real change for dying people … The mood in Westminster has shifted dramatically, at last catching up with public opinion,” said Sarah Wootton, head of the campaign group Dignity in Dying.
Starmer faces Commons vote on Chagos Islands handover
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be forced to hold a vote on the Chagos Islands amid fury over his decision to hand them over to Mauritius. The Government said on Thursday that the strategically important Indian Ocean archipelago would be transferred, after being in British hands since 1814.
The Prime Minister immediately came under fire over the move, which was announced during parliamentary recess without MPs getting a say in the Commons. Robert Jenrick, the frontrunner to become the next Tory leader, said the Conservative Party must display its “staunch opposition to the principle of the agreement”.
Mark Francois, the former Armed Forces minister said, “It’s appalling how Labour have deliberately announced their abject surrender over the Chagos Islands during a Parliamentary recess.” A plane takes off while others stand on a runway
He added: “This is even more pressing, before Argentina ups its rhetoric over the Falklands or Spain does over Gibraltar – we now need both of those other claims categorically refuted, on the floor of the House, early next week.”
A Government minister on Saturday was forced to issue a statement on the territories after the Prime Minister on Friday did not rule out signing them away.
Stephen Doughty, the minister for UK Overseas Territories, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar or any other of our overseas territories is not up for negotiation. “The Chagos Islands are a very different issue, with a very different history.”
Labour claimed the deal would safeguard global security by ending a long-running dispute, which followed a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in favour of Mauritius in 2018.
Robert Buckland, who represented the UK as solicitor general in the ICJ case, said the Government’s approach was “underhand”. The former justice secretary told The Telegraph that the decision “flies in the face of the evidence”.
“The evidence I presented and saw did not get even close to Mauritius having a claim,” he added.
Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister and Tory leadership contender, raised concerns about the implications for wider Western security of ceding the Chagos Islands.
He said: “The islands’ Diego Garcia air base is not just strategically important – it sits in the middle of the Indian Ocean and operates as a fixed aircraft carrier giving us strategic reach over Afghanistan and eastern Iran and dominates the sea lanes and sits at the heart of a maritime conservation zone. That makes it a serious strategic prize for any global power. And without control over the outlying islands, we have less control over what happens next door.”
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, also expressed outrage at the decision, with the party planning to table an urgent question in the Commons on Monday. Farage wrote to David Lammy on Saturday to demand that a vote take place “at the earliest opportunity”, saying the way that the decision had been made meant MPs “from all parties remain in the dark about so many aspects of this decision”.
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