In a major breakthrough, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell broke ranks to publicly state their support for assisted dying reform. It heralds a major landmark and comes days after the Ministry of Justice said it would yield to MPs if they voted to change “cruel and outdated” laws which currently ban the right to die.
Campaigners have now urged all MPs to state their positions as they push for a Parliamentary debate and a free vote on what is now a crucial issue for millions of families.
It comes as Dame Esther Rantzen sparked a passionate national debate by revealing her stage four lung cancer diagnosis and wish to die on her own terms.
Mr Mitchell, 67, Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said: “ I strongly support [the right of assisted dying]. The House of Lords has already voted for this – with appropriate safeguards – and Scotland may well be next. I hope that early in the next Parliament MPs will be able to express a view in principle on this issue of conscience where we know 80 per cent of our constituents want to see change.”
Mr Hunt, 57, preparing for a landmark Budget in less than a fortnight, added: “On a personal level I have moved from being very much against a change in the law – on the grounds of unintended consequences – to being rather more agnostic.”
Their responses come after the Daily Express asked MPs attending Cabinet – in effect Britain’s most senior lawmakers – where they stand. We demanded to know whether, in principle, they support moves to allow assisted dying, or not.
The question was put directly to all 32 ministers attending, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins, and Attorney General Victoria Prentis, on two separate occasions.
Only Mr Hunt and Mr Mitchell responded, but Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, who did not answer our request, last week became the first Cabinet member to back a vote on assisted dying.
Stepmother-of-two Ms Keegan, 55, said she backed reform in principle because of the strength of public feeling and the stunning success of terminally ill campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen’s campaign.
Ms Atkins, 47, has been asked by the Express on at least four occasions, both personally and through the Department of Health and Social Care, but has yet to state her current position, with a spokesman recently indicating she does not want to preempt Parliament, despite the issue accepted as being a matter of individual conscience.
Dame Esther, 83, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in January last year, is fighting for the right for millions to end their lives as they see fit.
The impasse has foced her to signed up to Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas because ending her life as she wants here is currently impossible. Her wishes are supported by her three children, but should they accompany their mother on her final journey to Zurich they face the prospect of being jailed as accessories to murder to manslaughter on their return to the UK, an offence punishable under current legislation by 14-years in jail.
Last week her petition, launched on January 8 and run in conjunction with this newspaper and charity Dignity in Dying, surpassed 127,000 signatures, significantly above the threshold at which MPs are duty bound to consider a Commons debate and vote.
Pressure is now on all 650 MPs to publicly state where they stand, just months before a general election at which the subject is set to be a major doorstep issue.
Dame Esther’s hope of a watershed legal victory is now within sight with an influential group of MPs on Thursday set to publish the findings of a year-long investigation.
The Health and Social Care Committee heard months of oral and written evidence on assisted dying, which refers to the involvement of healthcare professionals in the provision of lethal drugs intended to end a patient’s life at their voluntary request, subject to eligibility criteria and safeguards.
Among those who participated was Great British Bake Off judge Prue, whose brother David died of bone cancer in 2012.
Prue, 83, made a Dame in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours, is mother to Tory MP Danny Kruger. But she is exasperated at the sluggish pace of change given the strength of feeling across Britain.
She said: “What is Parliament waiting for? Doing nothing represents a gross abdication of responsibility.
“Regardless of what a future assisted dying law might look like, what MPs must accept is that the present state of affairs is monstrous. A choice between suffering against our wishes, flying abroad while seriously ill to be assisted to die in a foreign country, or ending our own lives at home with no medical knowledge or support is not a real choice.
“There is an inequity at the heart of this debate. If you don’t want an assisted death, you don’t need to have one – you get to have your choice. But I don’t get mine.”
The timing of the committee’s report will pile more pressure on the Government to accede to growing pressure to give families long-wanted power over how their lives end.
If it recommends the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015, the Government would have no hiding place just months before a general election.
Ministers have 60 days to formally reply to any committee recommendations, meaning a debate and vote could potentially be held before summer recess in July.
In a rallying cry, Dame Esther said: “Time is running out before an election and we need every party to guarantee this debate is in their manifesto. So let’s all write to our MPs expressing our deep concern that all of us must be given this crucial choice.”
