‘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:
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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 dates for Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK have been announced, with the US president due to be welcomed by the King from 17 to 19 September.
Buckingham Palace also confirmed that President Trump and first lady Melania will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle.
It was expected that the three-day state visit would take place in September after Mr Trump let slip earlier in April that he believed that was when his second “fest” was being planned for.
Windsor was also anticipated to be the location after the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that the letter from the King said Windsor would be the setting. Refurbishment works at Buckingham Palace also meant that Windsor was used last week for French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit.
This will be Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK, an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been invited to Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump posing with Charles and Camilla in 2019. Pic: Reuters
He has also been to Windsor Castle before, in 2018, but despite the considerable military pageantry of the day, and some confusion around inspecting the guard, it was simply for tea with Queen Elizabeth II.
Further details of what will happen during the three-day visit in September will be announced in due course.
On Friday, Sky News revealed it is now unlikely that the US president will address parliament, usually an honour given to visiting heads of state as part of their visit. Some MPs had raised significant concerns about him being given the privilege.
But the House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump’s visit as it will rise for party conference season on the 16 September, meaning the president will not be able to speak in parliament as President Macron did during his state visit this week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting.
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Labour MP: ‘Trump isn’t welcome here’
In February this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented the US president with the letter from the King inviting him to visit during a meeting at the White House.
After reading it, Mr Trump said it was a “great, great honour”, adding “and that says at Windsor – that’s really something”.
In February, Sir Keir Starmer revealed a letter from the King inviting Donald Trump to the UK. Pic: Reuters
In the letter, the King suggested they might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, complexities in both the King and Mr Trump’s diaries meant it wasn’t possible.
Read more from Sky News:
Is the UK ready for a ‘Trump-fest’?
Elton and Jagger at royal banquet
King and Trump won’t hold private meeting
This week, it emerged that Police Scotland are planning for a summer visit from the US president, which is likely to see him visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire, and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK.
Precedent for second-term US presidents, who have already made a state visit, is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
A small plane has crashed at Southend Airport in Essex.
Essex Police said it was at the scene of a “serious incident”.
Images posted online showed huge flames and a large cloud of black smoke, with one witness saying they saw a “fireball”.
A police statement said: “We were alerted shortly before 4pm to reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane.
“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours.
“We would please ask the public to avoid this area where possible while this work continues.”
A huge fireball near the airport. Pic: Ben G
It has been reported that the plane involved in the incident is a Beech B200 Super King Air.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar, it took off at 3.48pm and was bound for Lelystad, a city in the Netherlands.
One man, who was at Southend Airport with his family around the time of the incident, said the aircraft “crashed headfirst into the ground”.
John Johnson said: “About three or four seconds after taking off, it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more or less inverted and crashed.
“There was a big fireball. Obviously, everybody was in shock in terms of witnessing it. All the kids saw it and the families saw it.”
Mr Johnson added that he phoned 999 to report the crash.
Southend Airport said the incident involved “a general aviation aircraft”.
Four flights scheduled to take off from Southend this afternoon were cancelled, according to its website.
Flightradar data shows two planes that had been due to land at Southend were diverted to nearby airports London Gatwick and London Stansted.
Plumes of black smoke. Pic: UKNIP
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said four crews, along with off-road vehicles, have attended the scene.
Four ambulances and four hazardous area response team vehicles are also at the airport, as well as an air ambulance, the East of England Ambulance Service said.
Its statement described the incident as “still developing”.
Fire engines at the airport
David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, posted on social media: “I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport. Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work.
“My thoughts are with everyone involved.”
Local councillor Matt Dent said on X: “At present all I know is that a small plane has crashed at the airport. My thoughts are with all those involved, and with the emergency services currently responding to the incident.”
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UK
Heidi Alexander says ‘fairness’ will be government’s ‘guiding principle’ when it comes to taxes at next budget
Another hint that tax rises are coming in this autumn’s budget has been given by a senior minister.
Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government’s failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs.
Trevor Phillips asked specifically if tax rises were discussed among the cabinet last week – including on an away day on Friday.
Politics Hub: Catch up on the latest
Tax increases were not discussed “directly”, Ms Alexander said, but ministers were “cognisant” of the challenges facing them.
Asked what this means, Ms Alexander added: “I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn’t recognise that at the budget, the chancellor will need to look at the OBR forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out.
“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.”
Ms Alexander said she wouldn’t comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: “So, the chancellor will set her budget. I’m not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.
“When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.”
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Afterwards, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Phillips: “That sounds to me like a barely disguised reference to tax rises coming in the autumn.”
He then went on to repeat the Conservative attack lines that Labour are “crashing the economy”.
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Chris Philp also criticsed the government’s migration deal with France
Mr Philp then attacked the prime minister as “weak” for being unable to get his welfare reforms through the Commons.
Discussions about potential tax rises have come to the fore after the government had to gut its welfare reforms.
Sir Keir had wanted to change Personal Independence Payments (PIP), but a large Labour rebellion forced him to axe the changes.
With the savings from these proposed changes – around £5bn – already worked into the government’s sums, they will now need to find the money somewhere else.
The general belief is that this will take the form of tax rises, rather than spending cuts, with more money needed for military spending commitments, as well as other areas of priority for the government, such as the NHS.
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