A Conservative frontbencher has accused the Government of backing a proposed law to enable assisted dying.
Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman suggested on Thursday that supporters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill had tried to “short-circuit the proper scrutiny of the legislation”.
Lucy Powell, Leader of the House of Commons, described Mr Norman’s account of the process as “political, one-sided and misleading”.
The Government would “remain neutral” on the proposal to allow assisted dying in the UK, former cabinet secretary Simon Case wrote in a letter last October, before MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at second reading.
At the despatch box, Mr Norman warned the Bill had “a host of procedural defects in the way in which it was being rushed through the House by the Government”.
He alleged the Government was “quietly and wrongly standing behind this private member’s Bill”, brought forward by the Labour MP for Spen Valley Kim Leadbeater.
Some Labour MPs shouted in protest as the shadow Commons leader told MPs: “All this has been made worse by the rushed and secretive way in which the Bill Committee itself has been handled.
“The membership is disproportionately weighted towards supporters of the Bill.
“The schedule has been highly congested, with back-to-back sittings that do not allow MPs to prepare.
“Some of the sessions have been held in private. Attempts have been made to prevent key institutions such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists from appearing in front of the committee at all.
“The effect of all these measures is to impede and inhibit external, internal scrutiny and we now hear that the impact assessment will now not be published before the report stage of the Bill – all these things are shocking attempts to undermine and short-circuit the proper scrutiny of the legislation.”
Health minister Stephen Kinnock told the Commons last month that the Government expects “to publish the impact assessment before MPs consider the Bill at report stage”, after a committee has met several times to scrutinise and potentially amend Ms Leadbeater’s original proposal.
The Committee comprises 23 members, including Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Plaid MPs, among then Ms Leadbeater and opponent of assisted dying Conservative shadow work and pensions minister Danny Kruger.
Mr Norman asked: “Will (Ms Powell) now act to address these obvious failures or will she stick to her position that everything is fine and there is nothing to see here?”
Commons leader Ms Powell replied: “As he is well aware, this House passed with a majority – a clear majority – that this Bill should proceed through second reading to committee stage, and that is the will of this House.
“That committee is now convening and, in an unprecedented procedure for a private member’s Bill, has been taking written and oral evidence to begin with, and will begin now many weeks of line-by-line scrutiny of that Bill, which is again unprecedented.
“It will be a lengthy committee. The makeup of that committee, as is in the standing orders, the makeup of that committee reflects the vote at second reading of this House and also reflects the party makeup of the House, and many would argue that it’s actually been overly conscious of that.”
The Cabinet minister added the Government “has a responsibility, while we have a neutral position on the principles of the Bill, we have a responsibility to ensure that any Bill that is passed by this House is workable and operable, and that is the role that we will be playing through the ministers that are representing the Government on that committee”.
She said: “I have to say, I think it is extremely regrettable and ill advised of the shadow leader to use his very privileged position at the despatch box today to give such a political, one-sided and misleading account of what is a very difficult, technical, important issue of conscience to the country and to this House, and that actually, on the day of second reading, I think that every colleague – maybe apart from the shadow leader – across this House recognises that we and our procedures showed themselves at their very best in debating this important matter.”
