Former public health minister Ashley Dalton, who is living with terminal breast cancer, has urged her parliamentary colleagues not to bring back the assisted dying bill for England and Wales. In an exclusive interview, the Labour MP for West Lancashire revealed she is on lifelong treatment for metastatic breast cancer that has spread throughout her body. Despite her own diagnosis, Dalton said she believes the bill, which would legalise assisted dying for those with a terminal illness and less than six months to live, became a 'pretty dangerous set of affairs' after key amendments were rejected.
Background on the Bill
The assisted dying bill, tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, ran out of time in the House of Lords during the last parliamentary session after opponents laid more than 1,000 amendments. Supporters hope to reintroduce it via a new private member's bill, with the ballot for such bills drawn on Thursday morning. Some backers aim to use the Parliament Act to bypass further Lords opposition, but peers who opposed the bill argued it was fundamentally flawed.
Dalton's Personal Experience
Dalton, 53, resigned as a government minister in March to focus on her cancer treatment and continue serving her constituents. She described her diagnosis as 'incurable but treatable' triple-negative breast cancer, which does not respond to hormone therapy. After oral chemotherapy stopped working, she began intravenous chemotherapy. Dalton admitted she found it difficult to hear MPs debate the bill without revealing her own terminal diagnosis, especially when colleagues claimed firsthand experience but only offered secondhand accounts.
While personally opposed to assisted dying, Dalton stressed that her priority was good legislation. She noted that many amendments that could have strengthened the bill were rejected, leaving it with significant question marks about its application. 'I think it would be really foolish to bring back something as a private member's bill that has been so difficult, so divisive and so complicated,' she said.
Concerns for the Labour Party
Dalton, who sat beside former health secretary Wes Streeting during his resignation speech, warned that reviving the bill could further divide an already fractured Labour party. 'The Labour party is split down the middle – we're not going to be able to unite on assisted dying. Do we really want to spend political capital on opening up more division?' she asked, referencing potential leadership challenges and the need to rebuild public trust.
