𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Andy Burnham has been urged to meet terminally ill assisted dying campaigners to hear their stories after he dealt them a “devastating” blow. The Prime Minister essentially put a stop to the Bill to legalise assisted dying as he called for the debate to be put on hold until palliative care and social care has been fixed.

But terminally ill mother Sophie Blake warned that dying people “don’t have time for these endless excuses and delays”. The 53-year-old, who has stage four breast cancer, said: “This is devastating news for terminally ill adults who are dying in unbearable suffering.

“We’ve heard this argument for decades. Yet during those decades, people have continued to die in agony.

“Dying people don’t have time for these endless excuses and delays.”

In a direct message to the Prime Minister, she added: “I ask you to please meet us, terminally ill, mentally competent adults, the only people eligible for this Bill, alongside bereaved families, to hear our stories, and then tell us that we still do not deserve choice.”

Mr Burnham, who entered 10 Downing Street without winning a general election, has dashed the hopes of campaigners with his intervention amid a fresh bid to legalise assisted dying.

A new Bill has been brought forward after the previous one was passed by MPs but then blocked by the House of Lords.

Dignity in Dying warned that the issue was about “democracy” as well as “life and death”.

The campaign group’s chief executive, Sarah Wootton, said: “The Prime Minister is right to highlight that too many people are being let down by our health and care systems.

“So too are dying people, under a ban on assisted dying that both the public and MPs agree is forcing people to endure unimaginable suffering as they die, or take drastic actions at home and abroad with no upfront safeguards.

“Improving health and social care is essential, but will not remove the need for choice at the end of life.

“The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is the opportunity to change that. Parliament began the process of reforming this cruel, outdated law, but was scuppered by a handful of unelected Lords intent on blocking change by any means necessary. Their action was an insult to our democracy.

“As the Bill returns in September, there is the chance to finish what we started, and Parliament must grip it with both hands.

“The cost of Westminster failing to act on assisted dying is real, and will be felt by families across England and Wales.

“The Government’s commitment to fixing health and social care is crucial, but it can and must come alongside an assisted dying law that the public is crying out for, and that a majority of MPs have already approved. This is about life and death – but it’s also about democracy.”

The Prime Minister, who returned to Parliament just months ago in the Makerfield by-election, was asked about the issue as he gave a speech on social care reforms at a care home in London on Wednesday.

Mr Burnham, who is a Catholic, said: “I take the view that that debate – and I don’t say that there shouldn’t be a debate at some point about those issues – personally, I think there’s something that needs to happen first.

“That is the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care.

“I think it is very challenging to introduce that wider debate in a context of people not receiving that care and having the peace of mind about that care.

“That’s the way I kind of see this, and that’s the position that I will stick to.”

It marks a change in position from his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, who voted in favour of the previous Bill by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater in 2024.

Labour MP Lauren Edwards reintroduced the proposed law to “finish the job” after it ran out of time in the Lords in Parliament’s last session. It is due to return to the Commons on September 11.

Peers faced accusations of delaying tactics after a record 1,200 amendments were put forward to the last Bill, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers.

But opponents insisted they were simply doing their job of scrutinising it and that it needed to be strengthened as it was unsafe.

Ms Edwards insisted that end-of-life care can be improved at the same time as legalising assisted dying.

She said: “Improving social and palliative care and offering choice in the last weeks of a dying person’s life can and must go hand in hand.

“The Bill that has been before Parliament and thoroughly debated since October 2024 provides for a four-year implementation period.

“That means if my current Bill becomes law next year, we would have until 2031 to fix the status quo that Andy Burnham rightly says is broken and has let people down for too long. As he said today, the risks of failing to act are too great.”

The Bill would allow adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

Polling has consistently shown that the British public is in favour of assisted dying.

Jess Asato, a Labour MP and opponent of the Bill, said: “There can be no meaningful choice and no dignity at the end of life if we don’t have a palliative care system that provides basic support for the vulnerable, and an affordable social care system that gives everyone dignity at the end of their lives.

“It’s really welcome that the PM recognises this and has committed the Government to fixing our broken social care system.”

Mr Burnham abstained from a 2015 vote on another Bill to legalise assisted dying because of concerns over safeguards and people feeling under pressure.

In 2024, when he was mayor of Greater Manchester, he said he would “probably vote in favour of it” but added that he would want a requirement before any new law was implemented that hospices would be “properly funded and sorted out”.

The Daily Express has campaigned for more than three years for a change in the law with our Give Us Our Last Rites crusade.