Ministers opposed to assisted dying 'giving false impression', peer says

Senior ministers who have spoken out against assisted dying are giving voters a "false impression" about the government's position, a leading proponent of changing the law has said.

- Eleni Courea

Charlie Falconer, a Labour peer and former justice secretary, said opponents to the change were "getting more coverage" because ministers in favour of legalising assisted dying were "playing by the rules".

MPs will vote on Friday on a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales.

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, told a constituent she was "profoundly concerned" the bill would initiate a "slippery slope towards death on demand" and that "the state should never offer death as a service".

Mahmood's letter, which was published on social media over the weekend and reported by the Observer, warned that the bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales lacked appropriate safeguards.

Mahmood, who is Britain's most senior Muslim politician, wrote that while she believed in the sanctity of life, and that was the starting point for her position, she was opposed to the bill for legal and political reasons.

Her intervention has triggered questions about how a change in the law would be implemented with the health secretary and the justice secretary opposed to it. Wes Streeting has argued it could lead to coercion and ordered his department to carry out a review of its potential costs.