Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom’s first openly atheist prime minister, is pushing forward with plans to legalize assisted suicide – despite his health secretary Wes Streeting admitting that the state of end-of-life care in the U.K. is horrifying.
“When I think about this question of burden, I do not think that palliative care… in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available,” Streeting admitted. For that reason, the health secretary noted, he is “conflicted” and “deeply uncomfortable” with legalizing assisted suicide. His concerns echoed a 2023 report from Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee that emphasized the need for “major improvements” in palliative and other end-of-life care. Indeed, as The European Conservative noted, Starmer himself mused earlier this month that it could take a decade for the National Health Service to improve.
Starmer seems to share none of these concerns. He is a staunch supporter of legalizing assisted suicide, has committed to holding a vote on the issue, and has made it clear to MPs that he wants it to pass. During the election, he told Dame Esther Rantzen that he was “personally in favour of changing the law.” According to the Catholic Herald, Starmer plans to push for a vote before Christmas. In Scotland, an assisted suicide law is due to be debated this fall; politicians in the Isle of Man and Jersey have already indicated their support for assisted suicide.
Currently, the 1961 Suicide Act stipulates that assisting a suicide can be punishable by up to 14 years in prison, although activists have constantly tried to change it. MPs voted on assisted suicide in 2015, when it was defeated by a whopping margin of 330 votes to 118. Now, however, Parliament is far more liberal, and despite Labour’s already tanking support (Starmer and major ministers get frequently booed in public), many Tories will likely also vote for it. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated this summer that he is “not against” assisted suicide “in principle.” Some candidates for Tory leader are condemning assisted suicide.
Labour MP Jake Richards, who has put forward the bill and called for a change in what he calls the “archaic law in this area,” has long been an advocate for assisted suicide. “I hope, and indeed expect the government to give this issue time and for the House to have a free vote,” Richards declared. Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, however, has echoed Streeting’s concerns. “I don’t intend to support it,” she said. “I know some MPs who support this issue think, ‘For God’s sake we’re not a nation of granny killers, what’s wrong with you …?’ [But] once you cross that line, you’ve crossed it forever.”
“If it becomes the norm that at a certain age or with certain diseases, you are now a bit of burden… that’s a really dangerous position.”
It is staggering to consider Starmer’s commitment to assisted suicide despite warnings from some of his most prominent ministers – and the example of Canada across the Atlantic. Canada, like the U.K., can only provide a fraction of the palliative beds needed; Canada, like the U.K., has a horrifying record when it comes to end-of-life care and features a broken healthcare system incapable of providing people with what they need. But Canada legalized assisted suicide anyway and became an almost overnight cautionary tale. People have been euthanized because they were too poor; because they couldn’t get the healthcare they needed; because end-of-life care was unavailable; because cancer treatments were not forthcoming; because disability housing was lacking.
Keir Starmer knows all this. All of it was covered in the U.K. press. But he is pushing ahead with assisted suicide anyway – despite being told by his own health secretary that a similar scenario will unfold and that the “right to die” will swiftly become “the duty to die.” It seems to be no coincidence that Starmer’s push for a vote comes at the same time that he is laying out his plans for reducing the backlog in the healthcare system. Like Canada, Starmer is planning to cut healthcare costs by cutting vulnerable populations. Starmer looked and Canada, and deliberately decided to opt for that option.
That is not hyperbole – he knows what will happen if assisted suicide is legalized. His government ministers know. And he’s doing it anyway. He’s doing it on purpose.
