‘I’m looking to my own conscience’: Three MPs on what they think of assisted dying bill
This is politics but not as we know it.
Up and down the country public meetings are being held where attendees speak candidly, listen respectfully and pay tribute to those with whom they passionately disagree.
The MPs are often, genuinely, undecided on the subject and are more inclined to listen than to impose their views.
When it comes to assisted dying the debate feels different – underpinned by a free vote and informed by deeply personal experiences, much of it playing out in town halls and community centres.
It’s about as far away from the superficial divisions of Westminster politics as it can get.
A public meeting to discuss assisted dying in Sandhurst, Berkshire
At a gathering this week in Sandhurst, Berkshire, a young woman described her mother, who is in her 60s – a once fun, kind and energetic woman who after years fighting cancer is now fading before her eyes.
She told the silent room she feels powerless to help and broke down in tears as she appealed to Labour MP Peter Swallow to back a change in the law.
As she struggled to tell her story a man sitting in the row in front got up and put his arm around her.
He later told the meeting he was against the legislation, concerned it could make older people feel obligated to die.
He believed his own father had felt like a burden in his final years. The woman who he had supported reached out and took his hand as he spoke.
Others talked about their faith with quiet but compelling conviction, and many raised concerns about pressure on patients and doctors.
Read more:
Canada’s assisted dying programme has gone too far, says lawyer who tried to take own life
Why is assisted dying so controversial?
Labour MP Peter Swallow
‘I’m looking to my own conscience’
Mr Swallow, the newly elected MP for Bracknell who held the meeting, described the process of coming to a conclusion on a matter of conscience.
“This is one of the parts of my decision-making,” he said.
“I’ve also been speaking to medical experts, looking over contributions from people who work in the palliative care sector, and I have been reading the select committee report from the last parliament on this issue.
“I’ve read line by line through the Bill as well… and of course, I’m looking to my own conscience, looking to my own experience with death and weighing up all of those issues.
“I’ll be listening to the debate in Parliament as well and using that to really finally decide how I’m going to cast my vote.”
He is one of hundreds of MPs who have spent the past few weeks weighing all the arguments and may even wait until the day to decide, making the result of the second reading vote on Friday as unpredictable as it is consequential.
Labour MP Dr Jeevun Sandher
Decision ‘about shortening some quite horrible deaths’
The feeling among its supporters is that the shift in public opinion in favour of assisted dying will be reflected in parliament, and in particular among the vast new cohort of mostly Labour MPs.
A leading voice among them is Dr Jeevun Sandher, who has been making the case to colleagues and offering public backing to the Bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater.
He said: “We should be clear that 70 people die every single day… for whom palliative care cannot allay their pain. They have built a tolerance to opioids. They’re allergic to them. You can’t just pump them full of morphine.
“So for those towards the end of their life, for me, the choice is quite clear.
“What we should be doing is hope to alleviate suffering in accordance with their wishes in a safe, responsible manner, which Kim’s bill does.
“For some people, they will choose to end their life and others will not. And that’s completely fine. But we are talking the last six months. This is about shortening some quite horrible deaths.”
Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin
‘I don’t want our society to go down this route’
There is, however, steadfast and long-standing opposition, made up of MPs like Conservative Harriett Baldwin whose own father was handed a death sentence by doctors, only to recover.
“I think it’s very difficult to say definitively that someone is going to die within the next six months,” she said.
“From a personal point of view, I had an experience with my own father who was basically decreed to be almost dead and lived for another 20 years…
“He made it through. He lived to see his grandchildren grow up. And we’re so blessed that we had him for those extra 20 years.
“So, medically, ethically, legally, there are so many issues that I am not comfortable with and I don’t want our society to go down this route. And that’s why I shall vote against on the 29th.”
For the many who are still undecided though, the next few days are critical.
High-level interventions from Cabinet figures and angry headlines about splits at the top may sway opinion at the margins but what sets votes like this apart is that they are not won or lost in the corridors of power.
For once, it’s quiet voices, gentle politics and personal reflections that will dictate what Westminster does.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
Read more:
Car manufacturers fined £461m for collusion
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow
Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
Virginia Giuffre says she has days to live
Emails between Andrew and Epstein revealed
He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year 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