Date: Thursday 1st May 2025
Release time: Immediate
Members of Parliament are turning against Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill, finds a “bombshell” poll from Care Not Killing.
The poll of over 100 MPs, carried out over March and April, at the same time the Bill Committee was scrutinising the draft legislation, asked those surveyed how they intended to vote at Third Reading. In a major blow to those championing a change to the law, four in ten (42 per cent) said against, one-third (36 per cent) for, 13 per cent were undecided, five per cent plan to abstain and eight per cent preferred not to say.
Interestingly, the poll found that longer-serving, more experienced MPs were more likely to oppose the bill than MPs elected last summer.
The poll by Whitestone Insight a member of the British Polling Council, found that an overwhelming majority, 72 per cent of MPs said they were following the bill closely, with just one in 12 (8 per cent) disagreeing.
Asked if they agreed with the statement, “Replacing a High Court judge’s oversight of the Assisted Dying Bill with a panel gives me more confidence in it”, 41 per cent disagreed, with just 30 per cent agreeing.
While slightly more MPs (45 per cent versus 32 per cent), seemed comfortable with the make-up of the Bill Committee Stage, 41 per cent of those surveyed did not believe that the bill’s safeguards are sufficient to protect vulnerable people from coercion, with around a third (35 per cent) feeling the safeguards were adequate.
The findings of the poll come after a slew of amendments aimed at protecting vulnerable and disabled people were rejected by the committee, including those aimed to protect people with Downs Syndrome and eating disorders such as anorexia.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing commented:
“This bombshell poll confirms that the more MPs hear about assisted suicide and what it entails, the less likely they are to support changing the law.
“Clearly MPs recognise that removing the requirement for every application to be overseen by the High Court, part of a formal judicial process with the duty to consider all views and the power to summon witnesses, makes the bill much less safe, while the rejection of amendments aimed at protecting the most vulnerable people in our society is making many people think again.
“At the same time evidence about what is happening in places like the US State of Oregon, the model for the Leadbeater Bill, which consistently shows a majority of those ending their lives cite the fear of being a burden on their families, carers or finances as a reason is putting doubt in the mind of some those who previously backed changing the law.”
He continued:
“Other problems with the bill that have been exposed, such assisted suicide being raised with under 18s, applicants being able to shop around for a medic who will say they meet the criteria even if their family doctor says they do not, difficulties in diagnosis and prognosis, potential threat to funding of hospices that refuse to take part and many unanswered questions from who will administer the drugs to the use of private sector providers being left to minister to decide once the bill become law.
“This bill was sold to Parliament and to members of the public as being the ‘safest in the world’ yet the truth is this bill if it became law would put the lives of vulnerable people at risk, exactly as we see in every jurisdiction in that has legalised assisted suicide or euthanasia. Indeed, some MPs I spoke with were surprised that evidence about the problems in places like Canada was presented to the committee, including the recent United Nations report that slammed the Track 2 protocol which sees twice as many poor and disabled people die by lethal injection than more affluent groups.”
Dr Macdonald concluded:
“At a time when we have seen how fragile our health care system is, how the hospice movement is hundreds of millions in the red, and when up to one in four Brits who would benefit from palliative care but aren’t currently receiving it, I would suggest this should be the focus of attention, rather than discussing again this dangerous and ideological policy – A view that seemed to be shared by Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee Report, which less than a year ago did not recommend changing the law, but did recommend trying to fix the UK’s broken and patchy palliative care system so everyone can have a dignified death.”
For media inquiries, please call Alistair Thompson or Team Britannia PR on 07970 162225.
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Editors Notes
Methodology: Whitestone interviewed 103 MPs online from 6th March to 8th April 2025. Data were weighted to be representative of the House of Commons by Party, region, length of service, sex and age, as well as to ensure the sample is representative of the Leadbeater Bill’s Second Reading vote. Whitestone is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
