Wes Streeting “compromised the government’s neutrality” after discussing his views on the assisted dying bill, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.
The former cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that by expressing his views on the issue the health secretary had “crossed a line”.
Streeting voted in favour of changing the law in 2015. However, he has since stated that he will vote against Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s bill due to concerns end of life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice.
The health secretary even suggested there may need to be cuts to other NHS services if the changes are brought in.
Baroness Harman said: “The danger is if government ministers — especially the secretary of state for heath — if they speak out then the government’s position of neutrality is compromised and then individual MPs will be feeling they have to support the government.”
Parliament will debate the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29 November. It is marked as a free vote by the government, meaning MPs are not bound by the whips.
Harman also said the decision on the controversial Bill “should not be decided on money” but as “a moral issue”.
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The Times first reported the health secretary told backbench MPs of his position during a meeting on 21 October.
In comments later reported by The Sun, Streeting told Labour MPs: “The challenge is, I do not think palliative care, end-of-life care, in this country is good enough to give people a real choice.
“I worry about coercion and the risk that the right to die feels like a duty to die on the part of, particularly, older people.”
Later questioned on his comments in an interview with ITV, the health secretary insisted he had not tried to “wade” into the debate.
He said: “The government is neutral. Ministers are able to vote however we want. We’re subjected to a free vote.
“I hadn’t actually intended to wade into the debate last week. I was asked the question at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party by a colleague, and I gave an honest answer.”
But Streeting has since waded into the debate more stridently, telling Times Radio last week that legalising assisted dying would have “resource implications” for the NHS that would “come at the expense of other choices.”
“To govern is to choose”, he said, “If parliament decides to go ahead with assisted dying, it is making a choice that this is an area to prioritise for investment. And we’d have to work through those implications”.
Baroness Harman’s comments also come after education secretary Bridget Phillipson confirmed she would be voting against the bill.
She told Sky News: “Back in 2015, I voted against that legislation, and I haven’t changed my mind.”
She added: “I think all of us weigh up the very strongly held views on both sides, and often they’re very passionate and quite understandable reasons that people set out their position around change in the law.
“I continue to think about this deeply. But my position hasn’t changed since 2015.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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