The Health Secretary will vote against legalising assisted dying over concerns regarding the state of palliative care in the UK, it has emerged.
Wes Streeting had previously voted to legalise assisted dying in 2015, but he has since reversed his stance ahead of a landmark vote next month and will not back a law change.
He reportedly told Labour MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday that end-of-life care was not good enough to give patients a genuine choice.
The proposals, to be debated and voted on by MPs in November, would allow those who have six months to live to be assisted to end their life, subject to safeguards.
Kim Leadbeater, the backbench Labour MP behind the the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, has described it as a “very robust piece of legislation” with “layers and layers of protections” built in.
MPs will be free to vote with their conscience on the issue, and ministers were warned by the Cabinet Secretary not to share their views at the despatch box or in the media.
But The Times reported on Tuesday that Mr Streeting made his views known at a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting earlier this week, an intervention seen as highly significant given his Cabinet role.
He has become the second member of the Cabinet to explicitly state that he will vote against the legislation, after Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary.
The Health Secretary was asked on Monday whether the palliative care system was ready for assisted dying legislation, to which he reportedly shared his concerns.
One Labour MP told The Times: “He told us he wants to get to a point where people have a real choice at the end of life. At the moment, he said he doesn’t think it’s a genuine choice because palliative care is so bad.
“He did explicitly say he’d be voting against the assisted dying bill. He said he voted for it last time but he’s changed his mind.”
The last time MPs were able to vote on legalising assisted dying was in 2015, when the Health Secretary voted in favour.
Mr Streeting previously expressed doubts over the readiness of the end-of-life system in the UK, telling the FT Weekend Festival last month of the importance that “people aren’t coerced into exercising their right to die”.
He told the event in London: “Candidly, when I think about this question of being a burden, I do not think that palliative care, end-of-life care in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available.”
Sir Keir Starmer expressed a desire to see a free vote on legalising assisted dying in the Commons before winning the election earlier this year, following discussions with the broadcaster, Dame Esther Rantzen.
Following the news that Ms Leadbeater would introduce her private member’s Bill on the issue, the Prime Minister said he was pleased to “make good on the promise” he made to the assisted dying campaigner.
