Palliative and social care needs fixing before assisted dying debate, PM says

Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire

By David Lynch, PA Media

Palliative care and social care needs to be fixed before assisted dying is considered in the UK, Andy Burnham has said.

The Prime Minister was asked to outline his position on assisted dying, as MPs are set to again debate a bill designed to legalise it when Parliament returns after its summer recess.

His intervention on the debate marks a change of direction from his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, who was personally in support of legalising assisted dying, though did say that changing the law was a matter of conscience for MPs.

Burnham told reporters that before an assisted dying debate the "funding of palliative care and social care" needed to be fixed.

“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."

In 2024, just before the first Commons vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, Burnham told BBC Manchester he would “probably vote in favour of it”.