Keir Starmer makes stark admission on assisted dying & admits he has not made up his mind
SIR Keir Starmer today admitted he’s not made up his mind yet on assisted dying.
The PM said he will pour over the details of a new Bill to change the law before coming to a decision.
Sir Keir stressed he will respect the controversial issue being a free vote of conscience and won’t try and encourage Labour MPs to take a particular stance.
But speaking candidly about his own view on the Bill for the first time, the PM said: “Obviously a lot will depend on the detail and we need to get the balance right but I’ve always argued there will need to be proper safeguards in place.
“It’s going to be a free vote and I mean that. It will be for every MP to decide for themselves how they want to vote.
“I’m not going to be putting any pressure whatsoever on Labour MPs. They will make their own mind up, as I will be.”
His comments come as the wording of the Bill has been published today.
Brits with disabilities and mental health conditions will not be eligible to end their lives under the proposals.
The proposed legislation would give terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the right to end their suffering – but only if they meet strict criteria.
This includes the approval from two doctors and a High Court judge, along with a rule that the person must be mentally competent and able to self-administer the medication.
It also applies only to those who are already dying and “excludes both disability and mental illness as eligibility criteria”.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, claimed it has “the strictest safeguards anywhere in the world” to prevent coercion, with anyone found pressuring a patient facing up to 14 years in prison.
The Bill, running over 40 pages, will face its first Commons debate on November 29, giving MPs their first free vote on assisted dying in nearly a decade.
But critics say the proposals are being “rushed with indecent haste” and that MPs will not have adequate time to scrutinise the legislation before the November 29 debate.
Right To Life UK branded the proposed legislation “a disaster in waiting”, with spokeswoman Catherine Robinson saying: “It’s outrageous that MPs and the wider public are only seeing this Bill two weeks before it goes to a vote. What is being proposed is a monumental change to our laws, and it’s totally unjustifiable and fundamentally undemocratic to try and rush it through without proper public scrutiny.”