Three former Conservative prime ministers oppose assisted dying bill | Assisted dying

It has emerged that three former Conservative prime ministers are against the assisted dying bill.

Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss voiced their opposition to a change in the law, days before MPs vote on assisted dying proposals affecting patients in England and Wales for the first time in almost a decade.

May is expected to vote against Friday’s bill, the Daily Telegraph reportednoting that her position has not changed since she voted against the legislation in 2015.

While Johnson cannot vote because he is not a member of parliament, he said he would not support the legislation as it stands. Rishi Sunak previously said he would support a change in the assisted dying law, but it was reported that this did not necessarily mean he would support the bill.

Truss told the Telegraph that he was “absolutely opposed” to the bill, saying: “It’s fundamentally wrong: public bodies like the NHS and the judiciary should be protecting lives, not ending them.

“Without a doubt, as we have seen in Canada, vulnerable people will be put under horrendous pressure to end their lives prematurely.”

“The law will be ripe to be exploited by the unscrupulous. MPs should reject this terrible bill and instead focus on improving health services.

Their intervention comes after former Labor prime minister Gordon Brown last week announced his opposition, saying the death of his newborn daughter in January 2002. convinced him of “the value and necessity of good care at the end of life”.

Writing in the Guardian, Brown said the debate on assisted dying was moving too quickly, given the “profound ethical and practical issues” involved, and called for a commission to develop a “fully funded 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care’.

Tony Blair is yet to express his views on the matter, while Keir Starmer has said he supports a change in the law but has also not revealed his position.

However, former Labor leader Neil Kinnock has privately told colleagues he would support a change in the legislation and vote for it in the Lords, the Guardian understands.

Last night London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he opposed the bill because of his fears of coercion and guilt among terminally ill people.

Khan said the london standard: “If I were a Member of Parliament, I would vote against the Assisted Dying Bill. That doesn’t mean those who support it are wrong.

“I think it is right for the Government to make this a free vote so that MPs are not whipped. I think it is right that it should be a matter of conscience.

“But I have real concerns about the lack of palliative care available to those who are terminally ill. I have concerns about the state of the NHS.

“I have concerns about the state of social care.

“I am concerned not only about coercive control, I am concerned about some of the guilt that those who are terminally ill may have. For these reasons, if I had the right to vote, I would vote against it.

Munira Wilson, a Liberal Democrat MP who is part of a cross-party group of parliamentarians who backed an amendment that would “refuse” to give the bill a second reading if elected by the Speaker on Friday, raised her concerns about a process for how the bill should to pass through parliament.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labor MP who proposed the private members’ bill, told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today program that MPs had “absolutely” been given enough time to digest the details of the bill.

She added: “If this bill does pass second reading, the mechanisms of government will essentially kick in and we will begin to see what implementation will look like.” The debate will continue … and the advantage we have … is that there are other countries in the world that have got a version of assisted dying and we can learn from them.

The amendment, which could be considered on Friday, was also backed by New Labor MPs Anna Dixon, Polly Billington, Josh Fenton-Glynn and Uma Kumaran, as well as Conservative Ben Spencer.