A full breakdown of what we know about cabinet members’ views so far
Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater has proposed a new Bill to parliament seeking to legalise assisted dying. The proposed legislation would allow adults who are terminally ill with less than six months to live take their own life at the time of their choosing.
MPs are split as to whether to back the legislation – including those within the governing Labour Party. Labour will be giving its MPs a free vote on the bill, meaning that they will not be whipped to vote in a particular way.
LabourList is running a tracker on how Labour MPs intend to vote on the legislation. At the time of writing, LabourList has calculated that 40 Labour MPs intend to support the bill, with 20 planning to vote against it.
Among those 40 MPs in favour of the bill are a number of cabinet members. These are as follows:
- Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
- Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
By contrast, the following cabinet members say they intend to vote against the Bill:
- Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
- Shabana Mahmood, Secretary of State for Justice
- Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade
- Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Diliff – Creative Commons
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