MP who introduced assisted dying bill ‘confident’ it will be voted through

Published

5 months ago

June 20, 2025

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The politician who introduced the assisted dying bill has said she is “confident” MPs will push it through to the next stage on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference ahead of a Commons vote, Kim Leadbeater said: “I do feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully.”

If new amendments are voted through on Friday, the bill to give some terminally ill adults the right to end their lives will get closer to becoming law as it will go through to the next stage in the House of Lords.

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Ms Leadbeater, who introduced the bill in October last year, said if MPs do not vote it through on Friday, “it could be another decade before this issue is brought back to parliament”.

But she said there was a “good majority” who voted for the bill at the last major vote, the second reading in November, when MPs voted it through by 330 to 275.

“There might be some small movement in the middle, some people might change their mind or will change their mind the other way,” she said.

“But fundamentally, I do not anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded.”

A new YouGov poll found 72% of Britons supported the bill as it stands, including 59% of those who say they support assisted dying in principle but oppose it in practice, and 67% were opposed to the principle of euthanasia but are willing to back it in practice.

Criticism by doctors

The Labour MP was joined by bereaved and terminally ill people at Thursday’s news conference as she made her case for a change in the law.

The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.

Recently, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Physicians have raised concerns about the bill.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists said the bill, in its current form, did “not meet the needs of patients”.

It has also expressed concern over the shortage of qualified psychiatrists to take part in assisted dying panels.

But Ms Leadbeater said doctors and psychiatrists have their individual views on assisted dying and royal colleges have, over the years, been neutral because of that.

“My door is open, so if they have got concerns, they can come and speak to me about those concerns,” she said.

“But what I would say is they were very keen that there was psychiatric involvement in the process, and that’s why I included it. And I do think that’s important.”

It appears the country is ready for historic change

On the eve of one of the most important votes this current cohort of MPs will likely ever cast, it was a bold, daring claim to make.

Asked by a reporter at a news conference convened in a hot, crowded room deep inside the parliamentary estate if tomorrow’s assisted dying vote was likely to pass, Kim Leadbeater replied, confidently, yes, her controversial bill would be carried.

It would take a sizeable shift to swing it the other way, and opponents of the bill have been trying very hard to convince wavering MPs to do just that.

This week alone, there have been significant interventions from the Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists and Physicians – two professions that would be at the heart of delivering this end of life care and key in making the life or death decisions.

The setting might have been political, but the message was much less so.

Ms Leadbeater was flanked by supporters with the most compelling, heart-wrenching testimonies.

Each told their own powerful story: of lonely, painful deaths, carefully planned journeys to Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic kept secret from loved ones, and the life limiting deterioration in health and dreading what new misery the next few weeks or months would bring.

It was a powerful reminder to MPs that away from the parliamentary process and bill scrutiny, ultimately, this is what the legislation is all about.

There was a (questionable) assurance from Lord Falconer that the House of Lords would respect the will of the people and the bill will pass through the upper chamber without difficulty.

The timetable is tight, but it appears the country is ready for change – a historic one.

On Friday, MPs will vote on a number of amendments proposed by Ms Leadbeater after months of discussions with the assisted dying committee, made up of MPs both for and against the bill.

At the start of the session they will vote on a person not being eligible for assisted dying if their wish to end their life was substantially motivated by factors such as not wanting to be a burden, a mental disorder, a disability, financial considerations, a lack of access to care, or suicidal ideation.

The Speaker has indicated he will also choose these amendments for MPs to vote on:

• Supported by Ms Leadbeater – Requiring the government to publish an assessment of palliative and end-of-life care within a year of the bill passing

• Supported by Ms Leadbeater – A person cannot be considered terminally ill solely because they voluntarily stopped eating or drinking

• Not supported by Ms Leadbeater – Disapply the presumption a person has capacity unless the opposite is established

• Not supported by Ms Leadbeater – Prevent section 1 of the NHS Act 2006, which sets out the NHS’ purpose, from being amended by regulations.

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

4 hours ago

December 1, 2025

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Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.

The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.

Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:

“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.

His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.

Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.

According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”

On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.

In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.

Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).

If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.