Labour sparks outrage for ‘grossly misleading’ British public over bill

The draft legislation is back before peers in the House of Lords on Friday, with more debate sessions confirmed for next year amid a record number of amendments and fears among supporters it will run out of time to become law.

Now, politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have accused Labour of trying to bypass the parliamentary process and lying to the public.

According to The Guardian, senior Labour figures hoped legalising assisted suicide would win support among older voters who might have experienced the suffering of dying elderly relatives.

A spokesman for Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who introduced the Bill to Parliament just over a year ago, said neither she nor anybody on her behalf had any discussions with Downing Street or party leaders before she decided to adopt assisted dying as the subject of her private member’s bill.

The spokesman added: “The Government has remained scrupulously neutral throughout the passage of the Bill in the House of Commons. Officials, lawyers and parliamentary draftsmen have given extensive expert advice to ensure that the Bill is workable and effective, but all the policy decisions have been for Kim and Lord Falconer alone.

“All this document proves is just how popular reform to the current unjust and cruel law is in the country and the fact that the public wants Parliament to act to offer terminally ill people choice at the end of their lives.”

However, former Director of the Conservative Research Department Lord Kempsell told GB News: “The Prime Minister has repeatedly assured Parliament, and the public, that his Government is neutral on assisted suicide.

“If, as this leaked document suggests, Labour had been planning this policy in opposition, then those assurances were grossly misleading. The handling of this issue by the Government has fallen staggeringly short of the honesty and transparency people are entitled to expect, especially on an issue of profound sensitivity and importance.”

Labour’s leaked policy note also stated there would be “strong, impactful campaigns in favour of assisted suicide during the general election campaign” and the party needed to have a position on the issue.

Legalising assisted dying was not in Labour’s manifesto, but Sir Keir Starmer had a telephone conversation with campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen before he became Prime Minster, in which he pledged to make time for debate and a free vote on the issue.

Reform UK’s Danny Kruger told GB News: “No surprise that the Labour leadership was behind the Leadbeater Bill: it was obvious from the start that Keir Starmer wanted this law.

“Government ministers and civil servants have been helping the Bill all along. They have abused the Private Members Bill process to introduce a law they never committed to in their Manifesto. For this reason alone, and there are dozens more, the Lords should throw it out.”

| POOL

Also calling for the bill to be thrown out is former senior Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, a prominent campaigner against the policy.

He told the People’s Channel: “It is no surprise Sir Keir is known to be a supporter of the suicide bill and the Labour at both the beginning and end of life favours state sponsored death.”

Former Cabinet minister Lord Harper added: “If accurate, these concerning reports confirm what many of us have long suspected, but the Government has consistently denied: that the assisted suicide Bill is effectively a Government Bill disguised as a Private Members’ Bill.

“If the Government has secretly been planning this profound law change since before the General Election, it raises the question about how ‘free’ the free vote given to Labour MPs in the Commons was, where the Bill scraped through with a small majority.

| PA

Lord Harper continued: “If the Government wanted to introduce assisted suicide, it should have been honest with the electorate and included it in its manifesto.

“The handling of the Bill has been regrettable since its inception. Rather than creating extra time to force it through the Lords as the Government announced last week, the Bill ought now to be put on hold.”

The Government has maintained it neutrality on the issue. MPs in the Commons approved the bill earlier this year by a majority of 23 votes.

Sir Keir backed the measure, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against it.

All four Green Party MPs backed the legislation, while former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage turned it down.

Conservative MP Rebecca Paul, a member of the Committee which scrutinised the bill in the Commons, said: “The Government has repeatedly claimed to be neutral on the assisted dying Bill. When I sat on the Bill Committee in the Commons, time and again the two ministers on the Committee stressed Government neutrality despite consistently siding with the Bill sponsor.

“If these reports are true and the Government had planned before the Election to introduce assisted dying through a Private Members’ Bill, they would not only be abusing the Private Members’ Bill process but would also have misled the public, voters were not told that voting Labour would mean voting for an assisted suicide Bill backed by the Government in all but name.

“The Government needs to come clean, and the whole process paused before any remaining public confidence in this Bill is eroded completely.”

A Labour spokesman responded: “It’s completely normal for a wide range of policy proposals to be assessed by political parties in opposition.

“MPs have been able to vote with their conscience on the Terminally Ill Adults Bill throughout its passage through Parliament and the government has not taken a position. It is for MPs to decide whether this Bill is passed.”