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James Cleverly emotional as he tells MPs of best friend's death
James Cleverly spoke in the House of Commons on Friday during the debate on the assisted dying bill.
He revealed that his closest friend recently passed away "painfully" from esophageal cancer, after Mr Cleverly spent the final weeks of his life with him.
Mr Cleverly, a leading opponent of the Bill, stated his concerns are practical and not based on faith or ignorance.
He expressed a desire to alleviate suffering but said the Bill, which was voted through with a narrow margin, was not a good enough piece of legislation to pass.
Watch the video in full above.
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The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
MPs voting to legalise assisted dying is a momentous day for choice
Many of the great advances of liberal social legislation have been made in the form of bills promoted by backbench MPs under a benign Labour government. The abolition of the death penalty in 1965, by a bill sponsored by Sydney Silverman; the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, by a bill from Leo Abse; the Abortion Act 1967, by a bill from David Steel; and the Divorce Reform Act 1969, which followed another private member's bill by Abse. To this roll call of liberal reform, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Act is now likely to be added, and Kim Leadbeater's name will join those of her illustrious predecessors. In a week in which the House of Commons has also voted to decriminalise abortion, it is good to see that progress is still being made towards giving citizens more choice in how they live their lives – including in today's case how they end them. This is a difficult subject, and, as with any step forward to a more liberal society, there are those who object that the change breaches a fundamental moral principle. We understand that there are some difficult moral issues in assisted dying, but we do not accept that today's vote in the Commons crosses some kind of Rubicon. The Independent 's starting point is that it cannot be right to treat as criminal someone who is terminally ill and who wants to decide the time and manner of their death – or the people who assist them in this decision. The only question, it seems to us, is whether the protection against pressure being put on someone to end their life was strong enough. There were those MPs who argued today that those protections can never be 100 per cent secure, and it may be that in no part of life can people be absolutely protected from malign actors. But the protections in the bill are as good as they can be. They have been significantly strengthened since the bill was first published. The main change that Ms Leadbeater has made to the bill has been to replace a High Court judge with a panel of a lawyer, a social worker and a psychiatrist as the second line of defence after two doctors have approved a patient's decision. This is a better arrangement, drawing on a wider range of expertise. There remain concerns about the bill. One of the objections we take most seriously is from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which says, among other things, that 'there are not enough consultant psychiatrists to do what the bill asks'. This is a question of whether the provisions of the bill will be adequately resourced, which is related to the worry expressed by Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, who is opposed to the bill on the grounds that end-of-life care in the NHS is under-resourced as it is. The Independent 's view, however, is that the issue of resources should not be a reason for blocking the bill. If, for example, there is a shortage of psychiatrists, it would be wrong to deny the right to an assisted death altogether just because it cannot be offered to all. After all, the current situation is that those with means can travel to Switzerland to take advantage of the law there, as Mary Dejevsky writes in a moving account of her husband's death. This bill will make that choice available to more people in England and Wales, and under rather stricter rules than apply in Switzerland. We welcome today's decision by the House of Commons. It was decisive, although we wish it could have been more so, because this is the kind of change that benefits from a wide consensus. We urge the House of Lords to take its role seriously as a revising chamber. Peers should not seek to block the bill, or to pass amendments designed to render it ineffective. Instead, they should look at those aspects of the bill that are most contentious and seek to improve the legislation if at all possible. Ultimately, however, the upper house should respect the democratic mandate of the Commons and pass this law, the most significant social policy shift by a private member's bill since abortion was legalised in 1967, to allow more people to make their own decisions about their lives and how to end them.
The Sun
42 minutes ago
- The Sun
Palestine Action ‘to be BANNED' like terror group after they broke into RAF Brize Norton & vandalised 2 planes
PALESTINE Action is set to be "proscribed" and "branded a terror group" by the home secretary in the coming weeks, according to the BBC. Activists from the pro-Palestinian group broke into RAF Brize Norton overnight in a video shared online by members. Now, Yvette Cooper is preparing a written statement before Parliament on Monday - which if passed will make becoming a member of the group illegal, reports the BBC. It will then need to be enacted through new legislation. Proscription is used to ban terror groups in the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack as "disgraceful" today. The MoD earlier slammed the "vandalism of Royal Air Force assets" in a scathing statement. Brize Norton is the RAF's largest airbase and home to more than 6,000 military and civilian personnel as well as the UK's largest military aircraft. The MoD has slammed the "vandalism of Royal Air Force assets" in a scathing statement. A spokeswoman for the ministry said: "Our armed forces represent the very best of Britain. "They put their lives on the line for us, and their display of duty, dedication and selfless personal sacrifice are an inspiration to us all. "It is our responsibility to support those who defend us." 1
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Assisted dying: What happens next?
Friday's Commons vote on assisted dying takes Britain one step closer to a historic change in the law that would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives at a time of their choosing. But the legislation is still some way from entering the statute book and further still from coming into effect. So what are the key hurdles that those supporting the move have to cross, what are the questions that remain and when is likely to come into effect? The next stage for the legislation is the House of Lords, which will begin detailed consideration of the bill in the autumn. The first stage will be the second reading where, unlike the Commons, there is not usually a vote and the bill is expected to pass to committee stage. And here opponents of the bill have a dilemma. One option would be to flood the committee with amendments and demand that they are all considered individually rather than being grouped together, which is normal practice. This would ensure that the bill — which can only be debated on Fridays — runs out of time and falls when the current parliamentary session ends at some point in late spring next year. • Assisted dying latest: MPs vote in favour of passing bill However, it would not stop another MP from bringing back an identical version of the bill at the start of the next session and trying again. The other option is not to try and kill off the bill but to use the Lords process to revise it and strengthen the safeguards within it. An opponent pointed out that only 12 of 133 amendments tabled to legislation came to a vote of all MPs, and argued that the Lords should scrutinise the legislation in a way that the Commons cannot, without killing it entirely. Much will depend on the balance of views among those who have concerns about the legislation and whether they remain united. However, there is no way for supporters to force the bill through the Lords if opponents decide to sabotage it. Ping pong is the process where a bill moves back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords as they try to agree on amendments to the legislation. But private member's bills have limited time allotted to them — especially in the Commons — and if ping pong extends beyond the time available the bill falls. Having tacitly supported the right of MPs to decide on the issue — by bringing forward the bill early in the session and allocating it government-controlled time — ministers might be expected to ensure that the bill does not fall at this last hurdle. But that decision may depend on what the final legislation looks like. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, opposes assisted dying. But his department will be the one responsible for delivering it. Details of what this will look like remain vague, but in the next few months health officials will have to come up with a plan for helping NHS patients to die. Rather than a dedicated NHS dying service, it is likely that separate assisted dying clinics would be set up by charities and organisations, which would then receive funding and contracts from the Department of Health and Social Care. This would mirror the system created after the Abortion Act 1967, with clinics run by charities such as MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes) licensed to perform abortions. The legislation has huge implications for the already stretched NHS workforce: hundreds of doctors and nurses will have to be trained and recruited to work in the new clinics. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has warned that 'there are not enough psychiatrists to do what the bill asks'. There is an 'opt-out clause', which means no NHS staff or health professionals will be under any obligation to take part in the process of assisted dying. Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, has warned that only a minority of doctors will be 'happy to take part in the final stages'. New medical guidelines will also have to be issued to help doctors rule on when patients have less than six months to live — something that is notoriously difficult. Even if the bill does become law, it will still be some years before terminally ill patients will be able to use it. The legislation makes clear that its provisions will not come into effect before 2029 at the earliest to give time for the health service to adapt to the changes and ensure robust legal safeguards are in place.
