During last Friday’s debate in the Commons on assisted dying, Wes Streeting was seen ferociously nodding as MPs raised the need for better end-of-life care.
While the health secretary is yet to share his official view on draft proposals for a commission on palliative care, some of those behind it have taken comfort from his apparent gesture of support.
Streeting exasperated many of his cabinet colleagues, including Keir Starmer, with his public explanations for voting against the bill, but many Labour figures believe he was right to share his disapproval at the state of end-of-life care.
“They believe it’s fair enough for us to repeatedly blame the former government for the fiscal mess they left behind, so why can’t they highlight how much of a mess the palliative care system is for so many people?” one MP said.
They hope Downing Street will feel some obligation to support the independent commission’s work, given the prime minister has silently backed Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill so far.
Many supporters of assisted dying say legislation, which passed its first Commons hurdle on Friday, should go hand in hand with greater investment in palliative care.
About 300,000 people were cared for in the country’s 200-plus hospices in 2022-23, according to Hospice UK.
They cost £1.6bn a year to run, with only £500m coming from the government. The remaining £1.1bn is raised through donations, legacies, charity shops and other fundraising activities.
For some Labour figures, the timing of discussions around palliative care is in danger of overshadowing Starmer’s attempts to refocus his premiership this Thursday after a bumpy first few months.
One of them said: “His approval ratings are embarrassingly low, and we’ve had a rough ride already. Surely we can revisit this discussion in the near future?”
A backbencher signalled that Starmer appeared to have “shot himself in the foot”, claiming that if MPs had had more time to discuss the assisted dying bill, the prime minister could have had more space for his reset.
Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, is understood to be among No 10 figures who feared that allowing assisted dying legislation to go ahead could prove a distraction from the government’s priority of rebuilding the NHS. That group could take the same view of reforming palliative care.
However well Starmer’s reset lands, discussions around the state of care for terminally unwell patients in England and Wales dominated much of the debate last week, to the extent that some MPs who backed it are now considering changing their minds.
“I’ve spend the weekend trying to convince myself I made the right decision for my constituents with the time I had. I didn’t vote yes just because it felt like that was the way the wind was blowing within parliament, but because I thought I had read enough,” one new Labour MP said.
“But having listened to some colleagues make their arguments, I do think we really need to consider whether funding that could help people in palliative care could end up going to doctors who are needed to ensure assisted dying can go ahead for people who do need it.
“I just want the commission to be able to get on with it as quickly as possible, and I can’t imagine I’ll be the only one.”
