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There are few issues more controversial, more divisive.

Assisted dying polarises opinion.

But it’s a difficult conversation that needs to be had because ultimately death affects us all.

Even if you are fortunate enough to never be directly impacted by an assisted death you will almost certainly be indirectly affected if the End of Life Bill passes into law.

It would be the biggest social change to British society many of us would ever see in our lifetimes.

And after patients and their immediate families, it’s the country’s doctors who will be the most affected by any change in the law.

Like society, the medical community is divided on the issue.

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One senior doctor said: “It’s like Brexit, but worse.”

Another told me: “Emotions are running high”.

These are the milder, reportable comments.

There is bitterness and mistrust. The deep-rooted anger leads to each side accusing the other of deliberately spreading misinformation, “what-iffery” and “shenanigans” in the lead-up to the final vote next week.

We asked two senior doctors to share their views on assisted dying with us and each other.

Dr Mark Lee is a consultant in palliative care.

“I have worked in this field for 25 years and looked after thousands of patients at the end of their lives. I am against the assisted dying bill because I believe it poses risks to patients, to families, to doctors and to palliative care.”

Dr Mark Lee
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Dr Mark Lee

‘We can get this right’

Dr Jacky Davis is a consultant radiologist and a campaigner for assisted dying legislation in this country.

One of the arguments put forward by opponents of assisted dying is that Britain ranks highest among countries in its delivery of palliative care. And there is no need for such a radical change in end of life care.

It is not an argument Dr Davis accepts.

She said: “The status quo at the moment means a number of people are dying bad deaths every day. 300 million people around the world have access to assisted dying and more legislation is in the pipeline and no place that has taken up a law on assisted dying has ever reversed it. So we can learn from other places, we can get this right, we can offer people a compassionate choice at the end of life.”

Read more:
MPs criticise Esther Rantzen’s intervention
Assisted dying law ‘unworkable’ and ‘naive’

Dr Jacky Davis
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Dr Jacky Davis

Most deaths in palliative care ‘peaceful’

Dr Lee accepts palliative care has its limitations but this is a result of underfunding. This national conversation, he argues, is an opportunity to address some of those failings and improve end of life care.

“I think the NHS currently is not resourcing the situation enough to be able to provide the patients with the choice that they need to get the care that they needed and that is because they are not getting the choice and because palliative care is patchy. But in my day-to-day work, and I’ve worked in palliative care for 25 years, normal death is peaceful, comfortable, and does not involve people dying in pain.”

“I absolutely agree with Mark,” Dr Davis responded. “The vast majority of people will die a peaceful death and do not have the need for an assisted death. And I absolutely am with him that palliative care in this country has been treated abysmally. Nobody should have to hold a jumble sale in order to fund a hospice. That’s terrible.

“What I didn’t hear from Mark is, while the vast majority of people will die a peaceful death and have got nothing to fear facing death, there are people who have diagnoses where they know that they are likely to face a difficult death and will face a difficult death.

“What are you offering to the people who aren’t going to die a peaceful death? And what are you offering to people who are so afraid that that’s going to happen that they will take their own lives or will go abroad to seek an assisted death?”

Concerns about pressure on NHS

One important voice that has been missing from the national assisted dying debate is that of the NHS.

Senior leaders will not speak on the issue until the fate of the bill is decided. And its understandable why. It is not clear what role the health service would have if the bill passes.

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From 9 June: Doctors ‘really concerned’ about assisted dying bill

Dr Lee warned that his NHS colleagues were “extremely worried”, going further to say assisted dying would “break the NHS”.

He added, that the country’s already under-pressure hospice sector would struggle to cope with staff “walking away from the job if they are forced to be involved in any way”.

Dr Davis refuses to accept these warnings, arguing that the challenge to the health service is being overstated.

“I think it’s really important to take a step back and say this would be a very small number of deaths. And this is very small in terms of the other things that are coming through big drug discoveries, big new surgeries, all the rest of it this would be very small in terms in terms of money.”

The two doctors did agree on one thing. That every patient is entitled to a pain free and dignified death.

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From 1 June: ‘I’ve never felt conflicted about assisted death’

Dr Lee said: “I look at the whites of the eyes of people every day with that. I stand in that place every day. And that is shameful that anyone in this day and age should die in that position. Jacky and I can agree on that. That is unacceptable. But it still doesn’t justify the response that we meet suffering with killing someone, rather than addressing the needs that are in front of us.”

Dr Davis responded by saying: “You say you’ve looked in the whites of patients’ eyes at the end, and I’d say looking into the whites of patients eyes and listening to what they’re asking for when they’ve been offered everything that you can offer them and they’re still saying, ‘I’ve had enough’, then we should follow the example of other countries and say, ‘we will help you’.”

These are the two very divided opinions of two NHS doctors, but these are the same arguments that will be taking place in hospitals, hospices, offices, factories and living rooms across the country.

In about a week’s time, it will be down to the politicians to decide.

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Southport stabbing victim reveals how she survived attack – and fears ‘it could happen again’

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Southport stabbing victim reveals how she survived attack - and fears 'it could happen again'

A girl who was stabbed in the Southport attack has told Sky News how she thought she was going to die that day.

Warning: Some readers may find this content distressing

It is exactly a year since Axel Rudakubana killed three girls and attempted to murder eight others at a summer holiday Taylor Swift-themed dance event in the seaside town.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was stabbed in the back and the arm after going to the class with her younger sister.

She is now campaigning for children to have mandatory first aid training at school in response to the growth of knife crime.

She said she clearly remembers what happened that day.

Flowers and tributes near the scene of the attack a year ago. Pic: PA
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Flowers and tributes near the scene of the attack a year ago. Pic: PA

“Some of the girls were sat down in a circle making bracelets with the teachers, and a couple of them were getting up to get beads. I was standing between two tables and he came through the doors.

“He stabbed a little girl in front of me and then came for me and stabbed my arm. I turned and then he stabbed my back, even though I didn’t feel it at the time.

“There was a bunch of girls huddled around so I just started pushing them down the stairs, telling them to get out and run.

“I was thinking ‘Where’s my sister?’ and ‘We need to get out’.”

She and many of the other victims ran to the house of a neighbour for shelter. “I just thought that I was going to die,” she said.

Killer ‘looked possessed’

The girl said she can clearly picture Rudakubana that day.

“What I remember most about him is his eyes. They just didn’t look human, they looked possessed. It was kind of like a dream and you’re on a movie set and watching yourself go through it and make these decisions.

“It’s just kind of like adrenaline. People like to think they know what they’d do in that situation but, in reality, you don’t until you’re in it.”

Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were murdered in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed class.
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Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were murdered in the attack

Six-year-old Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, who was seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar died in the attack. It is something she finds difficult to talk about.

“I don’t think I can express how I feel about it,” the girl said. “A lot of anger and sadness.”

In January, Rudakubana was jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 52 years before he can be considered for release.

The chairman of the public inquiry into the atrocity called the attack “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history”.

Carrying knives ‘disgusting’

The girl who survived has now launched a campaign, supported by a clothing range called “Go Anywhere, Be Anything” to raise funds, to improve the ability of schoolchildren to help in the event of knife attacks.

“Everyone that’s going out and carrying knives is getting younger and younger,” she said. “And to think that it’s people my age is like disgusting.

“I just want to try and do the best I can to let people know that it’s not okay to do that and that they need to think about what they’re doing and the risks and how they’re harming themselves and other people.”

Her sister, who was also there that day, helped design “Go Anywhere, Be Anything”.

Read more:
Missed chances to stop Rudakubana

‘Terrorism has changed’, says PM

A three-minute silence will be held in Southport at 3pm to mark one year on from the attack. In an open letter to the community, Sefton Council wrote: “This period is incredibly hard for the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie and all of those children and adults injured or who suffered lifelong psychological impact of witnessing the attack, and we acknowledge the huge impact on their lives, too.

“We must not forget the local people who rushed to support and to our emergency responders. They all remain always in our thoughts.”

It is a sentiment shared by the survivor.

“You live in fear every day that it could happen again,” she said.

“Physically I’m getting better every day and healing. Obviously, my scars stay as a reminder but everyone from that day is going to have mental scars forever.”

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Revealed: The scale of cheap Chinese imports flown into UK without paying any tariffs

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Revealed: The scale of cheap Chinese imports flown into UK without paying any tariffs

The scale of cheap Chinese e-commerce imports flown into Britain without paying any tariffs has become clearer following a Sky News investigation into this new multi-billion pound phenomenon.

We have uncovered the first official estimate of the value of so-called “de minimis” imports into Britain, ahead of an official inquiry into whether this legal clause – which excludes packages worth less than £135 from paying customs duties – should be allowed to continue.

Companies like Shein and Temu have become big players in British retail, not to mention elsewhere around the world, by manufacturing cheap products in China and then posting them directly to consumers, benefiting from the de minimis rules.

Inside the cargo plane

Clothing manufacturers in the UK claim that de minimis makes it nearly impossible to compete with these Chinese competitors, raising questions about the viability of domestic textile and apparel production.

However, economists argue that the main beneficiaries of the policy to exclude cheap imports from customs are lower-income households, since it allows them to spend less on their shopping. Removing it, they say, would disproportionately affect poorer families.

The government has committed to an inquiry into the rules, which are also being changed in the EU and the US, but up until now there has been no official estimate of its scale.

According to HM Revenue and Customs data released to Sky News following a Freedom of Information request, the total declared trade value of de minimis imports into the UK in the last fiscal year (2024-25) was £5.9bn.

That was a 53% increase on the previous year (£3.9bn), underlining the scale of growth of e-commerce imports into the UK.

While it is hard to gauge how much revenue this means the Treasury has forgone, an illustrative 20% tariff on flows of that order could raise more than £1bn.

De minimis trade is growing

While that sum alone would not fill the fiscal black hole faced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the coming budget, it would nonetheless be nearly enough to pay for the government’s recent U-turn on winter fuel allowances.

Sky has also obtained the first television access deep into the supply chain, helping bring those goods into the UK, as it boarded a flight that had just travelled from Chongqing to Bournemouth Airport.

We filmed inside the belly of a plane belonging to European Cargo, one of a number of air cargo firms booming as a result of these trade flows.

Read more:
The rarely examined trade clause about to become a very big deal
UK city’s clothing industry in crisis

The untold story about de minimis is that it hasn’t just had an impact on shopping habits in the UK, or for that matter, the textiles manufacturing sector – it has also changed patterns of distribution.

Struggling regional airports that never saw their passenger numbers recover after the pandemic are now re-establishing themselves as hubs for cargo.

European Cargo is now the single biggest airline at Bournemouth Airport, despite not carrying a single passenger.

Other regional airports like East Midlands Airport and Prestwick in Scotland are seeing rapid growth in flows of trade.

All of which raises the stakes for the government’s inquiry into the de minimis system.

At present, there is no timeline for its decision, but removing the clause would have far-reaching effects across the economy.

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Lionesses parade: The route and key timings as thousands of England fans to descend on central London

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Lionesses parade: The route and key timings as thousands of England fans to descend on central London

The Lionesses will celebrate with thousands of England fans in central London today as the players take part in an open-top bus procession.

The bus will carry the team through central London, allowing supporters to celebrate the team’s defence of their Women’s Euros title alongside the likes of Leah Williamson and Chloe Kelly and catch a glimpse of the silverware.

Here is all you need to know.

Where will the parade go and when?

The team’s open-top bus will travel along The Mall from 12.10pm.

It will end with a staged ceremony at the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, which is expected to start at roughly 12.30pm and end at 1pm, the Football Association (FA) announced.

The Royal Marines Portsmouth band and the Central Band of the Royal Air Force will perform on the stage and highlights from the tournament will be shown on big screens.

England manager Sarina Wiegman will then lead her triumphant team out on stage to lift the trophy.

The event will be hosted by former Lioness and football pundit Alex Scott.

Fans will be able to attend the event for free, but the FA have warned that the capital is going to be “very busy”.

“People should plan their visits carefully, both coming into central London and travelling home,” the association said.

England players celebrate with the trophy after winning the UEFA Women's Euro 2025. Pic: Reuters
Image:
England players celebrate with the trophy after winning the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025. Pic: Reuters

How to watch

You can watch coverage of the entire event live on Sky News from 10am and follow all the action with our live blog.

Fans can also follow coverage of the event on the BBC, ITV and across England’s social media channels.

Celebrations with the deputy PM

The Lionesses landed back in the UK from Basel, Switzerland, on Monday, where celebrations continued with a reception at Downing Street.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and sports minister Stephanie Peacock hosted the team ahead of today’s bus parade.

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‘It’s very, very special’

Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Lionesses have once again captured the hearts of the nation.

“Their victory is not only a remarkable sporting achievement, but an inspiration for young people across the country.”

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Chloe Kelly saves England again

An extra bank holiday?

As the team have become the first senior England side to win a major tournament on foreign soil, some have called for an extra bank holiday to mark the occasion.

Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey was one of those who asked the prime minister if it was “time for that bank holiday”.

He was referring to comments made by Sir Keir in 2023. When, as leader of the opposition, he wrote on X that there “should be a celebratory bank holiday if the Lionesses bring it home”.

But with estimates suggesting an extra bank holiday would cost the economy £2.4bn, it’s understood such a move isn’t being planned by Downing Street.

‘There is no stopping them now’

The impact of the Lionesses second consecutive Euros title is already being felt across the UK.

At Bearsted Football Club in Maidstone, Kent, a mural of Alessia Russo, who levelled Sunday’s final with a goal in the 56th minute, has been unveiled.

Soccer Football - UEFA Women's Euro 2025 - Final - England v Spain - St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland - July 27, 2025 England's Alessia Ru
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Alessia Russo scoring the levelling goal. Pic: Reuters

The club is where Russo first started playing, and chairman Jamie Houston told Sky News the Lionesses have helped transform the women’s game.

“Five years ago we never had a girl’s football team,” he told Sky correspondent Mollie Malone. “Now we have five separate teams for girls, and boys are accepting of more girls in the game.

“There is no stopping them now.”

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What’s next for the Lionesses?

Read more:
In pictures: The story of the Euros final
Fans celebrate at club where Lioness began journey
Analysis: England showed resolve and relentlessness

Lynda Hale, who played in the England squad in the first ever international women’s match against Scotland in 1972, reiterated that women’s football has changed drastically since she played.

“When I first started playing there was hardly anyone that would watch,” she told Sky News Breakfast.

“To put on the England shirt and think what we started has grown to this magnitude, and it is still going to grow, is absolutely fantastic. I think the sky’s the limit in women’s football.”

Asked what advice she would have for the current England squad after their win, Ms Hale said: “The girls need to make as many memories as they can and take everything in their stride.”

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