Up to 30 MPs who backed assisted dying bill could withdraw support at next vote

Up to 30 MPs who backed assisted dying could withdraw support at the next parliamentary vote, MPs have said, as several prepare to suggest amendments on coercion and the role of medics.

The committee that will examine the next stage of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill will begin hearings in the new year, with MPs coalescing around several demands for changes to the legislation.

At the top of MPs’ demands for change is that the bill should not permit medical professionals to suggest assisted dying to terminally ill patients. MPs including former cabinet minister David Davis and Labour MPs Chris Webb and Mike Tapp – who voted for the bill – have asked the committee to consider making this change.

But that request is likely to put MPs on a collision course with the British Medical Association, which has said it is inappropriate to hide treatment options from patients. The BMA previously told the BBC that doctors should be trusted to use their professional judgment in the circumstances.

A number of MPs told the Guardian they saw this change as crucial to the bill progressing. “I was happy for it to progress, but there are concerns as well that I’ve got that will be addressed before it actually becomes law,” one said. “I think that 55 majority will start [being chipped away at]. I think it will pass probably between 10 and 20 majority. And that then starts to make things potentially more difficult in the Lords.”

Webb, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, said that change was a potential dealbreaker. “Around 60% of the 400 constituents who filled in the survey strongly support the end of life bill and many of them generously shared their personal stories of how they feel the bill could have helped their loved ones,” he said.

“I voted with compassion for them and because I believe everyone has the right to a dignified death. I believe it deserved to progress to the next stage, but I do feel it needs further robust scrutiny and debate and I will consider my position in the ensuing stages while continuing to listen to all perspectives.

“I’m uncomfortable that it allows doctors to suggest to patients they could take their own lives and believe this needs to be removed from the bill.”

Roz Savage, a Lib Dem MP who voted in favour of the bill, said that was also a key concern. “I voted for the bill because I believe that people should have choice, but if it’s to be a genuine choice then hospice care needs to be a viable, affordable, accessible option – and for too many it isn’t.

“And I very much take onboard the ‘slippery slope’ argument, as seems to have happened in other countries. I’m especially concerned that healthcare professionals must not proactively suggest assisted dying as an option – it should be left to the individual to make that suggestion,” she said.

Tapp told the BBC after the vote he had similar concerns. “It should only be discussed if it is raised by the patient,” he told BBC News. “This helps mitigate the risk of accidental coercion, or the perception of a hint, at a time of immense emotional distress and vulnerability.”

Speaking in the chamber, Davis said it was a condition of his further support. “I say to both the bill’s sponsors that it has a number of areas that they know I think they have to put right – about a dozen, in truth,” he said. “After the ‘Do not resuscitate’ scandal during the Covid crisis, I do not want that at any price – I do not want the state initiating this process. That is critical for me.”

A Labour MP, Josh Fenton-Glynn, abstained on the bill at second reading because of a concern about its safeguards. He said he intended to propose an amendment to the committee around coercion and safeguarding, because of his experience working in and around social care.

“I’ve seen how family coercion works around care budgets,” he said. “I have seen dreadful things. Any adult social worker will tell you that they’ve seen dreadful coercion from people who probably do love the person involved, but they end up coercing because it’s the thing that made their life easier at that point.”

Fenton-Glynn said there were “more safeguards if you want to give a kidney than if you want to access an assisted death”. He said he hoped the committee would take on an amendment that would make sure a social work assessment of the family situation had to be considered by the judge as part of the process.

“Our job is to scrutinise legislation, not to just say we think it’s a good idea in principle,” he said. ‘I want the right to die for me, but I’m a middle-class white man who runs marathons, has a university degree and understands the healthcare system. I think we have to listen to disabled people who are afraid and to people with concerns about coercion.”

The committee stage of the bill is expected to be completed by the end of April. Should too many amendments be proposed it could risk the bill not passing because parliament may run out of time to debate them all – a particular risk with a private member’s bill.