by Greg Heffer, Mailonline
The Labour architect of assisted dying laws is at the centre of another row after being accused of misleading MPs over the depth of public support for her legislation.
Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament last year, recently sent an email to MPs to update on her Bill’s progress.
As well as outlining various amendments to the Bill that have been added during MPs’ line-by-line scrutiny of the legislation, she also claimed public backing ‘remains high’.
highlighted what she claimed was ‘new data’ from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
She wrote that this showed ‘public support for assisted dying remains high and stable following second reading in November at around 79 per cent’.
‘The public wants us to deliver a safe, compassionate law for dying people,’ she added.
But opponents are now demanding she ‘set the record straight’ as it was revealed the NatCen survey was actually carried out before her Bill was even published.
They also pointed to how the survey asked Britons if they supported doctors being allowed to end the life ‘of a person with an incurable and painful terminal illness’.
It was claimed this is ‘very different’ from Ms Leadbeater’s Bill, after she rejected an amendment requiring eligibility for assisted dying to be restricted to those in physical pain.
Watch: Danny Kruger MP’s final speech in the debate.