Wes Streeting to vote against assisted dying over end of life care concerns
Wes Streeting will vote against assisted dying over concerns end of life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice.
As first reported by The Times, the health secretary told backbench MPs of his position during a regular meeting on Monday, blaming the state of the NHS.
Politics Live: Rayner faces Dowden at PMQs
It makes him the highest-profile MP to come out against legalising euthanasia, and the second cabinet minister to do so.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also spoken against it, saying that as a Muslim she has an “unshakeable belief in the sanctity and the value of human life”.
The proposal is being championed by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, who wants to give terminally ill people the choice to end their lives.
Her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was formally introduced to parliament last week and is due to be debated and possibly voted on for the first time next month.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What is assisted dying?
MPs will be given a free vote, meaning they can decide with their conscience rather than along party lines.
However, cabinet secretary Simon Case has written to ministers to say that, while they “need not resile from previously stated views” on assisted dying when directly asked, they “should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate”.
Mr Streeting backed assisted dying last time it was debated by parliament in 2015, but he has recently expressed doubts about changing the law.
In comments reported by The Sun at the weekend, he said: “The challenge is, I do not think palliative care, end-of-life care, in this country is good enough to give people a real choice.
“I worry about coercion and the risk that the right to die feels like a duty to die on the part of, particularly, older people.”
The health secretary’s comments are said to have weighed heavily with some MPs who are still on the fence.
Read More:
‘Fix care before assisted dying legislation’
Lib Dem MPs could clash with leader on assisted dying
As well as the issue of end of life care, critics like the Archbishop of Canterbury have also expressed concern that legalising assisted dying could lead to a “slippery slope” of widening criteria.
Ms Leadbeater has rejected that argument, insisting her bill would only apply to terminally ill adults and with safeguards in place.
She has told Sky News the legislation is about giving terminally ill people a choice, saying if they want to end their lives their only options at the moment are “suicide, suffering, or Switzerland”.
The precise detail of the proposed legislation – setting out the circumstances which could lead someone to be eligible – is not expected to be published until closer to the 29 November debate.
If the bill passes the first stage in the Commons, it will go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
That means any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.
If MPs vote against it at the first hurdle, as they did last time changes to the law were considered, that would prevent it going any further.
The SEC responded shortly after the issuers filed effective registration amendments for staked SOL and Ether exchange-traded funds.
IMF questions Pakistan’s plan to allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for Bitcoin mining amid energy shortages and budget talks.
There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.
This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.
Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”
A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.
The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.
This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.
The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.
While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From March: How will the UK scale up defence?
A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.
The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.
“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”
Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.
The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.
Read more:
Trump to double tariffs on steel imports
Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous
Last hospital in northern Gaza out of service
PM Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine earlier this year. Pic: Crown Copyright 2025
On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.
Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.
He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.
“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.
“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway