On Friday, the Commons will vote on the third reading of the assisted dying bill. Most MPs expect it to pass by a narrower margin than the majority of 55 MPs last time. There has been a shift in momentum throughout the bill’s passage through parliament, with at least a dozen more names now voting against Kim Leadbeater’s legislation. This shift has coincided with the steady erosion of much of the goodwill which characterised second reading in November. The subsequent committee stage was characterised by fraught exchanges, with the changes Leadbeater made to the bill infuriating some colleagues.
The private tensions within the Labour party were on public display last Friday. Leadbeater sat with her group of supporters on the fourth bench back; on the row in front was Jess Asato, Rupa Huq and a cluster of opponents. There was a tempestuous undercurrent to the debate. Paul Waugh delivered withering rejoinder to Esther Rantzen’s ill-judged jibe about assisted dying opponents being motivated by ‘undeclared personal religious beliefs.’ ‘Some of those who passionately support assisted dying,’ said Waugh. ‘Have a faith, a devout faith, that their world view is the right one.’ In parliament, the subject is testing friendships and straining interactions in the tea room. As one Labour MP told my colleague Madeline Grant, assisted dying risks becoming ‘Labour’s Brexit’.
The passions aroused are certainly evocative of the debate on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Much as how a generation of Tory politicians came to define their identity on how they stood on the European question, so too has personal testimony featured heavily in Labour MPs’ motivation in how are casting their votes. ‘Brexit was about one side who thought the other was unpatriotic,’ reflects one Tory veteran. ‘And another which thought the other side was stupid. This [assisted dying] is about much more fundamental questions of the cosmos.’ Assisted dying will likely serve as a filter for other debates for the rest of this parliament. Expect it to crop up again and again in conversations around the NHS – the state institution which Labour MPs hold most dear.
Before the election, senior Labour figures debated whether to start a ‘national conversation’ on assisted dying. Eventually, they decided against, reasoning, as one told Katy Balls: ‘We didn’t want to become the death party.’ Yet the assisted dying bill clearly enjoys the tacit approval of the Prime Minister. It is sponsored by a Labour MP, backed by a majority of Labour MPs and will be enacted in law by a Labour government. Much as the Tory party came to own Brexit, so too will Labour – like it or not – own assisted dying.
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