Former health minister warns against reviving assisted dying bill

Ashley Dalton, the former Labour health minister, has publicly urged Members of Parliament not to revive the assisted dying bill in England and Wales, describing the previously rejected legislation as a “pretty dangerous set of affairs.” Dalton, who resigned from her ministerial role in March to focus on treatment for terminal metastatic breast cancer, argued that bringing back the divisive bill as a private member’s initiative would be “foolish” and risk further fracturing the Labour party.

Dalton revealed she is undergoing lifelong treatment for triple-negative metastatic breast cancer, which has spread throughout her body. After oral chemotherapy recently stopped working, she has started a new intravenous regimen. She stated that while she had not previously intervened on the bill because she was serving as a government minister, she found it frustrating to hear MPs claim “first-hand experience” of assisted dying while she was dealing with her own terminal diagnosis privately.

The assisted dying bill, originally tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, would legalise assisted death for individuals with a terminal illness and less than six months to live. The legislation passed the House of Commons but ran out of time in the House of Lords, where opponents laid more than 1,000 amendments. Supporters of the bill hope to use the Parliament Act to bypass the Lords when the ballot for new private members’ bills is drawn on Thursday morning.

Dalton, 53, said she was relieved the bill had fallen in the Lords due to the significant uncertainties surrounding its application. She argued that many rejected amendments could have strengthened the safeguards, and that reintroducing the bill in its current form would be irresponsible. “It is our responsibility of members of the Houses of Parliament to make good law,” she said, emphasising the need for detail and specificity to avoid unintended consequences for vulnerable people.

The Labour party is currently described as “split down the middle” on the issue, with potential leadership challenges and a need to rebuild public trust. Dalton, who sat beside former minister Wes Streeting as he gave his resignation speech in the Commons, warned that spending political capital on opening up more division would be counterproductive. She noted that the party is looking to put in the hard yards to win back trust rather than engaging in further internal conflict over assisted dying.