Labour divisions over the controversial bill on assisted dying have intensified as party grandee Harriet Harman demanded the immediate cancellation of work ordered by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, into the potential costs to the NHS of legalisation.
In an interview with the Observer, Harman said Streeting’s intervention – making clear he regarded the bill as a “slippery slope” and saying that he had commissioned work on the financial implications – had not only breached “neutrality” rules for cabinet ministers but risked “tainting” the entire debate by turning it into an issue of “pounds and pence”.
