Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that palliative care and social care must be properly funded before assisted dying is considered again. He spoke during a Q&A session at a North London care home. Last year MPs backed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, but it failed in the House of Lords. Labour backbencher Lauren Edwards has set out a near-identical bill for a vote in the coming months.
Burnham's position on assisted dying
Mr Burnham said: "I take the view that that debate - and I don't say that there shouldn't be a debate at some point about those issues - personally, I think there's something that needs to happen first." He added: "That is the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care. I think it is very challenging to introduce that wider debate in a context of people not receiving that care and having the peace of mind about that care."
In 2015 Mr Burnham abstained from a vote on a Bill to legalise assisted dying. But in 2024 he told BBC Manchester he would "probably vote in favour of it". He revealed he had family experience that changed his view, stating: "I think we do allow people to suffer and families to suffer too much." In 2024 he said funding for hospices needed to be addressed before any law change, stating: "Consequently, you can't have this law change with an underfunded hospice movement."
New bill and parliamentary history
Last year MPs backed a Bill that would allow terminally ill people expected to live for less than six months to end their lives. The legislation, spearheaded by Labour's Kim Leadbeater, required the approval of doctors and legal professionals. Supporters argued the law change was long overdue, but critics questioned safeguards and warned disabled people could face disproportionate pressure. The Labour government under Keir Starmer did not take a position on the Bill, allowing MPs to vote as a matter of conscience. In June last year it passed the Commons with a majority of 314 votes to 291. But it failed to pass by the end of the Parliamentary session after peers put forward hundreds of amendments in the House of Lords.
Reactions from campaigners and MPs
Dave Sowry, who chairs pressure group My Death, My Decision, criticised the PM's comments. Mr Sowry, whose wife Christy travelled to Dignitas Switzerland to end her life in 2022, said: "I spent years caring for my wife, so I do not need convincing of the importance of properly funded social care. I also know that good care, however compassionate, cannot answer every fear or relieve all suffering... Presenting these as alternatives misunderstands what dying people and their families are asking for. We need better care, but we also need honesty about its limits. Funding one should never be made a condition of debating the other."
Following Mr Burnham's comments, campaign group Dignity in Dying said: "The PM is right to highlight that too many people are being let down by our health and care systems. So too are dying people, under a ban on assisted dying that both the public and MPs agree is forcing people to endure unimaginable suffering as they die, or take drastic actions at home and abroad with no upfront safeguards. Improving health and social care is essential, but will not remove the need for choice at the end of life."
Labour MP Jess Asato said: "Most MPs concerned about the Assisted Dying Bill have always been clear that their concerns aren't about the principle, but the practical implications. We have a responsibility to consider the safety of introducing such a flawed Bill into a broken and failing care system. There can be no meaningful choice and no dignity at the end of life if we don’t have a palliative care system that provides basic support for the vulnerable and an affordable social care system that gives everyone dignity at the end of their lives."
Earlier this month Ms Edwards told The Mirror: "This is unfinished business for parliament. When a small minority of peers in the House of Lords prevented the bill from passing earlier this year it came as a huge disappointment to all those terminally ill people and their families who are depending on parliament to give them the safe and compassionate choice they deserve. We cannot let them down again. MPs have already voted in favour of this long-overdue change to the law. By publishing the bill again, I am simply asking my colleagues in the elected chamber to return it to the Lords so they can finish their proper task of scrutinising and revising it in the usual way."
