{"id":109583,"date":"2026-08-24T03:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/109583\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:50:14","slug":"the-uk-assisted-dying-bill-is-coming-back-its-labour-champion-is-looking-to-australia-for-inspiration-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/109583\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK assisted dying bill is coming back. Its Labour champion is looking to Australia for inspiration \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important that we consider them together,\u201d Edwards says of social care and assisted dying. \u201cI don\u2019t think that there is a reason to delay\u201d changing the law, she argues, highlighting \u00a3125 million provided by Starmer\u2019s government for adult and children\u2019s hospices. (A <a href=\"https:\/\/committees.parliament.uk\/publications\/52190\/documents\/289940\/default\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Public Accounts Committee report said<\/a> this one-off funding did not directly pay for service delivery or solve financial problems facing the sector.)<\/p>\n<p>Edwards\u2019 bill has a four-year implementation period. That means if it becomes law next year, assisted dying wouldn\u2019t be permitted until 2031. She believes the two systems can work on a \u201cdual track\u201d and that poor palliative care won\u2019t incentivize people to access assisted dying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think that lack of care is a motivator for this option,\u201d she argues. \u201cI think it\u2019s a last resort when physical suffering really can\u2019t be relieved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287469514-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8892989\"  \/>Yvette Cooper speaks during a visit to a care home in London on July 29, 2026. | Pool photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth via WPA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>From MPs to peers <\/p>\n<p>A majority of Starmer\u2019s Cabinet backed the bill last time, including Health Secretary Yvette Cooper and Justice Secretary Alex Norris \u2014 but only 12 MPs need to switch sides for the bill to fall, making the margins tight. Indeed, suspended Labour MP Karl Turner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/london-playbook\/care-to-vote-for-us\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told POLITICO<\/a> he\u2019ll vote against the bill after abstaining last June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople\u2019s views are largely what I expect them to be when we next vote on this,\u201d Edwards argues. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any significant moves away from people who were supportive of the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then there is the substantive question of the House of Lords. Edwards condemns the \u201csmall minority\u201d of peers she blames for filibustering the previous bill. She said she is happy to work with peers on good faith amendments in the \u201cscrutiny process\u201d this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s really important that we consider them together,\u201d Edwards says of social care and assisted dying. \u201cI don\u2019t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[45260,7786,7333,583,497,1193,94,185,45261,5,6,2067,2068],"class_list":["post-109583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-alex-norris","tag-andy-burnham","tag-assisted-dying","tag-australia","tag-british-politics","tag-canada","tag-keir-starmer","tag-parliament","tag-transition-implementation-period","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-westminster-bubble","tag-yvette-cooper"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117148452974327699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}