Latest news with #campaigners
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Assisted dying latest: Landmark bill hangs in balance ahead of crucial MPs vote
The assisted dying bill is back in the Commons on Friday as MPs prepare for a crucial vote that could see it either fall or move on to the House of Lords. Campaigners are making their final cases ahead of the third reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at 9.30am. A vote is expected later on Friday afternoon. The bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Supporters of the bill have argued that people must be given a choice at the end of their lives, but opponents have warned that it fails to guarantee protections for society's most vulnerable. MPs are entitled to have a free vote on the bill, meaning they decide according to their conscience rather than along party lines. The relatively narrow majority means every vote will count on Friday, to secure the bill's passage for further debate and voting.
Daily Mail
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Assisted dying architect Kim Leadbeater in last-ditch plea to get MPs to back assisted dying bill as vote sits on knife edge
Kim Leadbeater made a last-ditch plea to MPs to back her Bill today ahead of a crucial vote that would all but guarantee assisted suicide will be introduced to Britain. The Labour MP said she is confident the Assisted Dying Bill has the support of enough MPs to pass tomorrow's Third Reading vote. Assisted dying was backed by Parliament in principle during November's historic yes vote but tomorrow MPs will debate and vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in its entirety. The Bill passed at Second Reading by a majority of 55 but it would fall at the next hurdle if just 28 MPs switched directly from voting yes to no while all others voted the same way today. About 20 MPs have publicly indicated that they will vote a different way after seeing the details of the proposed assisted dying law, meaning it is likely to be tighter than in November. Today Ms Leadbeater acknowledged there could be some changes in the numbers, but insisted she is confident the Bill will pass its next Commons vote and move through to the Lords. She said: 'There might be some small movement in the middle, some people might maybe change their mind one way, others will change their mind the other way but fundamentally I don't anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded so I do feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully.' Joined by terminally ill people and campaigners at a press conference on the eve of the vote, the Labour MP warned it could be a decade before the issue is put to Parliament again if MPs fail to vote for it today. She said: 'We have the most robust piece of legislation in the world in front of us tomorrow, and I know that many colleagues have engaged very closely with the legislation and will make their decision based on those facts and that evidence, and that cannot be disputed. 'But we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.' However opponents of the Bill said significant changes - including the removal of the High Court judge safeguard - mean the legislation is unfit for purpose and urged MPs to vote against it. Former home secretary Sir James Cleverly said that MPs were promised ahead of the last vote that concerns about the safeguards in the Bill would be sorted out at committee stage, but he added: 'They weren't.' 'MPs need to vote on the bill as it is, not on how they hope it will be in the future,' he said. Yesterday Liverpool MP Dan Carden - the leader of the Blue Labour group - became the latest MP to say he will vote against the Bill having previously abstained. 'I genuinely fear the legislation will take us in the wrong direction,' he told the Guardian. 'The values of family, social bonds, responsibilities, time and community will be diminished, with isolation, atomisation and individualism winning again.' It comes as Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and most senior Catholic in the UK, said the Church will close Catholic hospices and care homes if MPs vote for assisted suicide. However Dame Esther Rantzen made a plea to MPs last night, urging them to pass a Bill she said could 'transform the final days of generations in the future' and replace the current 'cruel, messy criminal law'. The broadcaster, who is terminally ill with cancer and has been a prominent supporter of assisted dying, said: 'Please allow us terminally ill the dignity of choice over our own deaths.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Back my assisted dying bill or face another decade of death without dignity, Kim Leadbeater warns MPs
Kim Leadbeater has made a last-minute plea to MPs to support her assisted dying bill, warning that if it is rejected on Friday, terminally ill adults could face a ten-year wait before the issue is debated again. In an emotional plea ahead of Friday's final Commons vote on the Terminally Ill Adults bill, the Labour MP asked how many more would suffer dying without dignity if MPs reject her plans. ' If we don't pass this law tomorrow, it could be another decade before this issue was brought back to parliament,' she told a press conference in Westminster. Flanked by MPs from across party lines, as well as a group of assisted dying campaigners, Ms Leadbeater added: 'It's 10 years since we last had a vote. If we leave it now, I worry it could be a heck of a long time. 'And in that time, how many more stories will we hear like Katie, Pamela, Anil and Sophie.' The four campaigners had shared stories of their own experiences with terminal illness or of the anguish around the deaths of loved ones who could have benefitted from assisted dying. One of the campaigners at the press conference, Sophie Blake, who has been living with stage four secondary breast cancer for three years, said: 'I have come to terms with the fact my life has been shortened and I do not fear death. But I do fear how I will die.' She is allergic to most opioids, and said: 'The thought of not being able to control my pain and suffering hangs over me'. 'I want my daughter and my family's last memories of me to be happy and wonderful times, not being left traumatized by seeing me in agony,' she added. The assisted dying vote is on a knife-edge, with expectations there could be decided by just 10 to 15 votes. Campaigners against the legislation called at the last minute for a delay to the crunch final vote, with 52 Labour backbenchers asking Sir Keir Starmer to step in and give MPs more time to scrutinise the bill. But the prime minister rejected the call, saying there 'has been a lot of time discussing it, both in parliament and beyond parliament'. Asked whether she is confident the bill will pass, Ms Leadbeater said she expects MPs to back it comfortably. She said: 'We had a good majority of 55 at second reading, there may be some small movement in the middle, some people may change their mind one way, others may change their minds the other way. 'But fundamentally, I do not anticipate that the majority will be heavily eroded. I feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully.' It came after the last minute letter from 52 MPs warned: 'This is not a normal Bill. It alters the foundations of our NHS, the relationship between doctor and patient, and it strips power away from Parliament, concentrating it in the hands of future Health Secretaries. 'MPs will be arriving at Westminster on Friday morning without sight of the final version of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.' If, as expected, the Bill passes its final stage on Friday it will then go to the Lords where peers have warned that they intend to heavily scrutinise the legislation. Among the issues still facing questions is the problem of potential impacts on those with disabilities and coercion to end lives early among the vulnerable. The Whitestone polling was commissioned by the disability group Not Dead Yet UK and also found that six in ten agree that some disabled people could be coerced into assisted suicide by others who do not have their best interests at heart. This rises to 64 per cent for people polled who are disabled. It also found 57 per cent agree that disabled people who struggle to access the support they need, given the current state of the NHS and social care funding, may be more likely to seek assisted suicide instead while only 17 per cent disagree.
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
Breakthrough Alzheimer's drugs too pricey to be offered on NHS
Two breakthrough Alzheimer's drugs have been deemed far too expensive, for too little benefit, to be offered on the medicines are the first to slow the disease, which may give people extra time living National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded they were a poor use of taxpayers' money and said funding them could lead to other services being say it is a disappointment, but dementia experts have also supported the decision. The two drugs, donanemab and lecanemab, both help the body clear a gungy protein that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's medicines do not reverse or even stop the disease, rather brain power is lost more slowly with trials of these drugs were celebrated as a scientific triumph as they showed, for the first time, it was possible to change the course of Alzheimer' since then a row has developed over the cost of the drugs and how meaningful the benefit is. The official price in the US is £20,000-£25,000 per patient per year. What the NHS would pay is 70,000 people in England with mild dementia would have been eligible, potentially putting the bill in the region of £1.5bn a year for the drugs resources, including regularly infusing the drugs directly into spinal fluid and frequent brain scans to manage dangerous side effects, would also massively ramp up the cost. The benefit of the drugs is also debated. They potentially delay the transition from mild to moderate dementia by four-to-six months. That could mean more time without needing daily care, driving, being present for significant family events and Prof Rob Howard, from University College London, said real-world benefits "were too small to be noticeable". In trials of lecanemab, patients were better off by 0.45 points, on an 18-point scale ranging from healthy to severe he said the cost would "have been close to the cost of a nurse's salary for each treated patient".The decision not to fund the drugs is not a surprise. The first assessment last year concluded they were not Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, acknowledged the latest news would be "disappointing" but said the benefits were "modest" at best while requiring "substantial resources"."If they were approved they could displace other essential treatments and services that deliver significant benefits to patients," she said. NICE said its appraisal had factored in potential savings in the cost of providing care, but the drugs were still deemed decisions apply to the NHS in England, but are normally adopted by Wales and Northern Ireland too. Scotland has its own method for approving pharmaceutical companies have three weeks to raise concerns about how the review was performed, otherwise the decision becomes final on 23 pharmaceutical companies involved, Eisai for lecanemab and Eli Lilly for donanemab, say they will appeal against the decision. Nick Burgin, from Eisai said the NHS "is not ready" for the challenge of tackling Alzheimer's and flaws in the process meant their drug would have been rejected "even if Eisai provided lecanemab to the NHS for free".Eli Lilly, the company behind donanemab, has already expressed its disappointment. "If the system can't deliver scientific firsts to NHS patients, it is broken," said Chris Stokes, Eli Lilly's president and general manager of UK and Northern Europe. Is this a distraction or a disappointment? The sentiment was echoed by both the Alzheimer's charities. Prof Fiona Carragher, from the Alzheimer's Society said "the science is flying but the system is failing" and it was "highly disappointing" the drugs were not available on the Evans-Newton, the chief executive at Alzheimer's Research UK, said the result was "painful" and patients will miss out on this and future innovations "not because science is failing, but because the system is".However, others say NICE has made the right call. Tom Dening, professor of dementia research at the University of Nottingham, said he was "in complete support" as the benefits of the drugs were "minimal" and a "distraction" from the real issues in dementia."[Namely the] unglamorous challenge of providing people with dementia and their families with activities, care and support that we already know are beneficial for their mental and physical health," he Atticus Hainsworth, from St George's, University of London, said: "NICE is simply doing its job."Beyond lecanemab and donenamab there are 138 dementia medicines being tested in 182 trials around the Tara Spires-Jones, director of the centre for discovery brain sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said: "There is hope for safer, more effective treatments on the horizon."
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Starmer braces for biggest backbench rebellion yet as ‘horrendous' welfare cuts spark immediate backlash
Sir Keir Starmer is bracing for the biggest backbench rebellion of his leadership to date after the publication of his flagship welfare reforms sparked an immediate backlash from MPs and campaigners. The government's plans to cut disability benefits have been described as 'horrendous', 'harmful' and 'a disaster', with campaigners warning it will drive already struggling disabled people into poverty. The reforms - aimed at encouraging more people off sickness benefits and into work - are set to include the tightening of criteria for personal independence payment (Pip), which is the main disability benefit, as well as a cut to the sickness-related element of universal credit (UC) and delayed access to only those aged 22 and over. The bill will remove PIP from up to 800,000 people and the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) own impact assessment, published earlier this year, estimated the reforms would see an additional 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – pushed into relative poverty. Ministers are likely to face a Commons stand-off with backbench Labour MPs over their plans, with dozens of them last month saying the proposals were "impossible to support". In an attempt to head off some opposition, the legislation - known as the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill - will give existing claimants a 13-week period of financial support. The Department for Work and Pensions said this will apply to those affected by changes to the Pip daily living component, including those who lose their eligibility to Carers Allowance and the carer's element of UC. Speaking as the bill was published on Wednesday, Labour MP Brian Leishman told The Independent: 'I will be voting against these horrendous reforms, and I think a 13-week transition period is an insult to disabled people. 'The government should speak to disability organisations to actually hear about the lived experiences of what it is like for sick and disabled people.' His comments were echoed by fellow Labour MP Nadia Whittome, who said there is 'no financial case or moral case' for the cuts. "It is clear that this Bill is not making positive reforms to welfare but cutting the income disabled people need to survive. Many people will lose thousands of pounds a year and be plunged into poverty,' she added. And Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the bill will 'hit vulnerable families with a double whammy… hitting disabled people who can't work with these cuts the loved ones who care for them will also lose out', he warned. 'The Conservatives left an enormous welfare bill and we need to get it down, but the government's plans risk backfiring by making it harder for disabled people and their carers to work.' On Wednesday Angela Rayner, deputising for Sir Keir at prime minister's questions (PMQs), refused to rule out punishing Labour MPs who vote against the government's plans to cut disability benefits. After SNP MP Pete Wishart asked whether the prime minister intended to remove the whip from rebels, she responded: 'We're absolutely committed to ending child poverty. We've already introduced free school meals. We're already supporting families. We've given a living wage rise to over millions of workers that need it. We're getting on the job.' James Watson-O'Neill, who runs the disability charity Sense, warned that the cuts would 'push thousands further into poverty, hardship, and isolation'. 'Many disabled people already find themselves in debt because current benefits don't stretch far enough. Cutting support further at a time when the cost of living remains high is not only unjust — it is cruel,' he said. And mental health charity Mind said it is 'harmful in the extreme'. 'Struggling with your mental health is not a choice, but it is a political choice to attempt to fix the public finances by cutting the incomes of disabled people,' policy director Minesh Patel said. 'We urge MPs to oppose these measures and call on the UK government to recognise the devastating impact these cuts will have on disabled people and to rethink their plans. We can, and must, do better,' he added. But work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the reforms, aimed at saving around £5bn, were necessary as the 'social security system is at a crossroads'. She said: 'Unless we reform it, more people will be denied opportunities, and it may not be there for those who need it. "This legislation represents a new social contract and marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity.' But charity the Trussell Trust said the bill published on Wednesday 'does almost nothing to ease the concerns of hundreds of the thousands of disabled people who fear that their social security support will be ripped from them'. 'In fact, this bill will push nearly half a million more people into severe hardship and towards the doors of food banks,' policy director Helen Barnard said. She added: ''It is easy to see why so many MPs have voiced concerns about the damage this bill will do. What has been published today offers little for MPs deeply concerned about the impact of these cuts on their constituents.'
