from Religion Media Centre
Lord David Blunkett has joined more than 58,000 people and almost 300 MPs and peers in a campaign calling on the government to improve end-of-life care, as Parliament prepares to consider again the assisted dying bill. The private members bill, proposed by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, returns to the Commons on Friday. It is the same as the bill which Kim Leadbeater proposed a year ago. It fell as it ran out of time in the House of Lords, following widespread concern over the protection of vulnerable people. However, the Commons supported it with a majority of 23.
Hospice UK says hospices have a £745 million funding gap and Lord Blunkett told the i paper that he wants Andy Burnham to come up with half of this, saying this “would bring about fairness and much needed stability and a recognition of their crucial role in end of life care”. The Prime Minister has said that palliative and social care funding needs to be fixed before the debate on assisted dying progresses.
The Press Association has commissioned a poll which has found that a third of those surveyed feel the law should only be changed if there is more funding for end-of-life care alongside. However, 61 per cent support the return of the Bill to parliament. The poll, by Ipsos, was of 1,133 people aged 16-75, surveyed at the end of August.
The campaigning organisation Care Not Killing has released a survey of 100 MPs, which found two thirds were concerned that if the assisted dying bill is seen as not protecting the vulnerable, this will undermine trust in politics. MPs who were elected before 2024 were more likely to say the bill is a distraction. The survey was by Whitestone Insight.