David Cameron comes out in support of assisted dying bill after previously voting against in 2015
David Cameron has become the first former prime minister to come out in support of the assisted dying bill.
The former Tory leader has written a piece in The Times explaining his decision, and saying that in the past he opposed moves to introduce measures allowing terminally ill people to end their own life.
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton wrote: “My main concern and reason for not supporting proposals before now has always been the worry that vulnerable people could be pressured into hastening their own deaths.”
However, he says he has now been reassured by those arguing in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater will put the bill forward for a vote in the House of Commons on Friday.
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MP has ‘no doubts’ about assisted dying bill
“As campaigners have convincingly argued, this proposal is not about ending life, it is about shortening death,” Lord Cameron wrote in The Times.
His intervention comes after Gordon Brown, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss all came out in opposition to the bill.
None of Sir John Major, Sir Tony Blair or Rishi Sunak have made their positions public.
Gordon Brown. File pic: PA
In his article, Lord Cameron says he asked four questions before reaching his conclusion – whether there are sufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable people, whether this is a “slippery slope”, whether it would put unnecessary pressure on the NHS and will the proposed law lead to a meaningful reduction in human suffering?
On the first point, Lord Cameron says protections like two doctors needing to give approval as well as a judge, alongside the requirement of self-administration of the fatal drugs, are enough.
He also highlights the criminalisation of coercing someone to end their own life.
On whether the bill is a “slippery slope” – as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood claimed – he says such an argument can be made for any social change.
The former prime minister writes that the bill is in “a sensible and practical resting place for public policy in this area”, and is explicitly only for the terminally ill, rather than those with mental illnesses and disabilities.
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The most senior Conservative to back the bill
Former prime ministers David Cameron and Gordon Brown both lost a child in tragic circumstances. But they’ve now come to a different conclusion about assisted dying.
Lord Cameron lost son Ivan, aged six, who was severely disabled and suffered from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, in February 2009. Mr Brown, the then prime minister, cancelled PMQs out of respect.
When assisted dying was last debated in the Commons in 2015 – when he was prime minister – Mr Cameron voted against it. But now, in a major and potentially influential intervention, he’s changed his mind.
“When we know that there’s no cure, when we know death is imminent, when patients enter a final and acute period of agony, then surely, if they can prevent it and – crucially – want to prevent it, we should let them make that choice,” Lord Cameron writes in The Times.
But the former premier is in a minority of Conservatives who back the bill and most senior Tory MPs, including Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel and former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, are opposed.
Lord Cameron is also the first of all the UK’s living former prime ministers to back Kim Leadbeater’s controversial bill, which is being debated in the Commons on Friday.
This week three former Conservative PMs – Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – let it be known that they oppose the bill. Baroness May, like Lord Cameron, will have a vote if the bill reaches the Lords.
Mr Brown’s daughter Jennifer, born seven weeks prematurely weighing 2lb 4oz, died after just 11 days in January 2002 following a brain haemorrhage on day four of her short life.
A son of the manse who was strongly influenced by his father, a Church of Scotland minister, Mr Brown says the tragedy convinced him of the value and imperative of good end-of-life care, not the case for assisted dying.
On whether it put undue pressure on the NHS, Lord Cameron dismisses the argument.
“It’s not just that the bill would be applicable in only a very small number of cases, it is that the NHS exists to serve patients and the public, not the other way around,” he writes.
On the fourth point – whether it will reduce human suffering – the former prime minister says: “I find it very hard to argue that the answer to this question is anything other than ‘yes’.”
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Lord Cameron adds that, as a member of the House of Lords, he gets letters from terminally ill patients and that poses questions.
He wrote: “When we know that there’s no cure, when we know death is imminent, when patients enter a final and acute period of agony, then surely, if they can prevent it and – crucially – want to prevent it, we should let them make that choice.
“It’s right that MPs are having a free vote on this issue – and our tradition of free votes on such moral issues should be maintained.
“The fact it is a free vote gives legislators the chance to think afresh and, if the evidence convinces them, to change their mind. That’s what I have done. And, if this bill makes it to the House of Lords, I will be voting for it.”
Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) went from a jihadist movement once aligned to al Qaeda to forming the official government of Syria.
It was a monumental transformation for them, their country and the wider Middle East.
But potentially too for British people who went to Syria – and who were stripped of their citizenship as a result, on the grounds of national security.
Tauqir Sharif, better known as Tox, went to Syria in 2012 as an aid worker. He was accused of being part of a group affiliated with al Qaeda, which he denies, and the then-home secretary Amber Rudd deprived him of his British citizenship in 2017.
“As of now, I am deprived of my UK citizenship but I’m not a convicted terrorist – and the reason for that is because we refused, we boycotted, the SIAC [Special Immigration Appeals Commission] secret courts, which don’t allow you to see any of the evidence presented against you,” he said.
“And one of the things that I always called for was, look, put me in front of a jury, let’s have an open hearing.”
Tox went to Syria in 2012
HTS is still a proscribed terrorist organisation but the British government has now established relations with it.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to Damascus to meet the jihadist-turned-Syrian interim president – the man who swapped his nom de guerre of al Jolani for Ahmed al Sharaa.
David Lammy shakes hands with Ahmed al Sharaa in Damascus. Pic: X / @DavidLammy
If the UK government takes HTS off the terror list, what does that mean for those who lost their citizenship after being accused of being part of it?
People who joined HTS are only a subset among the scores of people who have had their citizenship revoked – a tool the UK government has been quick to use.
According to a report by the Parliamentary Joint Human Rights Committee, the UK “uses deprivation of citizenship orders more than almost any country in the world”.
The peak of that was in 2017, and mainly in relation to Syria – especially in the case of people joining Islamic State, perhaps most famously Shamima Begum.
Shamima Begum was stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds
And because people cannot be made entirely stateless, and need to have a second nationality, or be potentially eligible for one, there are worries of racism in who the orders apply to.
Countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh offer dual nationality, whereas other nations do not. In 2022, the Institute of Race Relations said “the vast majority of those deprived are Muslim men with South Asian or Middle Eastern/North African heritage”.
Legal grey areas
Sky News submitted Freedom of Information requests to the Home Office asking for a breakdown of second nationalities of those deprived of citizenship, but was refused twice on national security grounds.
The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, told Sky News there are issues around transparency.
“I do think there is a problem when you have people whose relationship with the country that they’re left with is really technical and they may never have realised that they had that citizenship before and may never gone to that country,” he said.
“Me and my predecessors have all said, owing to how frequently this power is used, it should be something that the independent reviewer should have the power to review. I asked, my predecessor asked, we’ve both been told no, so I agree there’s a lack of transparency.”
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No automatic reversal
Even if the government does remove HTS from the terror list, it would not automatically invalidate decisions to deprive people of their citizenship.
Macer Gifford fought with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a foreign volunteer. Pic: AP
Macer Gifford gave up a career as a banker in London to join the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a foreign volunteer between 2015 and 2017.
He told Sky News that decisions “made years ago in the interest of the British public have to remain”.
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“We can’t sort of go through previous cases nitpicking through it, wasting time and money to bring it up to date,” he added.
“We can’t be naive because the intent to go out, the decision to go in itself is a huge decision for them. So it shows commitment when they’re there, they then, if they take an active participation in the organisations that they’ve been accused of joining, again, that involves training and perseverance and dedication to the cause.”
But those born and raised in Britain, who joined the same cause, and lost their citizenship as a result, might reasonably ask why that should remain the case.
Criminals face being banned from pubs, sports grounds and concerts under new government plans to give judges powers to pass tougher community sentences.
The new measures, which would apply to people in England and Wales, “should remind all offenders that, under this government, crime does not pay”, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
Offenders’ freedom could also be curtailed with limits on driving, travel bans and restriction zones confining them to specific areas, the government said.
Similar measures could also apply to prisoners let out on licence, while drug testing would be expanded to include all those released, rather than just those with a history of substance misuse.
While judges are currently able to impose limited bans for specific crimes, such as football bans for crimes committed inside a stadium on match day, the new measures would allow for such bans to be handed down for any offence.
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Inside one of Britain’s most overcrowded prisons
The justice secretary said: “When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished.
“Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.
“These new punishments should remind all offenders that, under this government, crime does not pay.
“Rightly, the public expect the government to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The proposals are part of the Labour government’s efforts to tackle overcrowding in prisons.
Back in June, it emerged that prisoners were to be transferred to lower security jails in an effort to ease overcrowding, as part of a new measure quietly unveiled by the government.
Sky News reported earlier this month how the prison system was close to collapse on a number of occasions between autumn 2023 and summer 2024, according to an independent review by former chief inspector of prisons, Dame Anne Owers.
The report said there was a systemic problem which has led to recurring prison capacity crises over the last 18 years.
Protesters have gathered across the country as groups demonstrated against asylum seeker housing and were met by anti-racism campaigners.
Demonstrations under the Abolish Asylum System slogan were held in England, Scotland and Wales, including in Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Aberdeen, Mold, Perth, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle, Horley and Canary Wharf.
Counter-protests were also organised by campaign group Stand Up to Racism.
Police officers scuffle with demonstrators during protests at Castle Park in Bristol. Pic: PA
In Bristol, mounted police separated the two groups in the Castle Park, with officers scuffling with protesters.
Police kept around 200 anti-immigration protesters draped in English flags away from roughly 50 Stand Up to Racism protesters in Horley, Surrey.
People take part in a protest outside the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Horley, Surrey. Pic: PA
One man, wearing a West Ham United football shirt, was held by police as he yelled: “You’re not welcome here, you’re not welcome here, you’re not welcome here” at anti-racism protesters.
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Anti-immigration protesters also chanted: “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Robinson” in support of the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
A confrontation between a protester and a counter-protester outside the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Horley, Surrey. Pic: PA
The anti-racism protesters chanted “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” and held signs calling for solidarity and to “stop deportations”.
The Stand Up to Racism protesters were shepherded into a smaller area as they continued to chant: “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here”, which was met with “No they’re f****** not” from the other side of the street.
People inside the hotel look at protesters outside the Radisson Hotel in Perth. Pic: PA
In Perth, protesters gathered outside the Radisson Hotel.
The anti-migration protesters held up signs with slogans such as “Perth is full – empty the hotels” and “get them out”.
People take part in a counter-protest outside the Radisson Hotel in Perth. Pic: PA
Stand Up to Racism Scotland said it had achieved “victory” in Perth, with more than 200 gathering to oppose the Abolish Asylum System demonstration.
In Liverpool, a dispersal order was issued to try and contain the protests.
Saturday’s events come amid continued tension around the use of the hotels for asylum seekers.
Regular protests had been held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which started after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on 10 July.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was charged with trying to kiss a teenage girl and denies the allegations. He is due to stand trial later this month.
In the wake of those protests, Epping Forest District Council sought and won an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated there – a decision which the government is seeking permission to appeal.
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