Politics latest: Keir Starmer votes in favour as assisted dying set to be legalised (2024)

We now have the exact breakdown of how MPs voted in the second reading of the bill that could see assisted dying legalised.

Here are some key figures who voted in favourof the bill:

• Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
• Chancellor Rachel Reeves
• Former prime minister Rishi Sunak
• Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt
• Home Secretary Yvette Cooper
• Defence Secretary John Healey
• Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall
• Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn
• Science Secretary Peter Kyle
• Energy Secretary Ed Miliband
• Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy
• Environment Secretary Steve Reed
• Solicitor General Sarah Sackman
• Wales Secretary Jo Stevens
• Chief Whip Sir Alan Campbell
• Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden
• Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper
• Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts
• Former deputy PM Oliver Dowden
• Former health secretary Victoria Atkins

Here are some key figures who voted againstthe bill:

• Tory leader Kemi Badenoch
• Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel
• Mother of the House Diane Abbott
• Former home secretary Suella Braverman
• Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

(This post will be updated as we go through the list of how all 650 MPs voted.)

Sky News political editor Beth Rigby is in central lobby - just outside the House of Commons chamber - as the first vote on assisted dying passes.

She says it is a "moment potentially of huge societal change".

Beth adds that Kim Leadbeater will likely feel "profoundly happy" about the result.

The next steps for the bill - including it being debated and having amendments proposed in committee stage - will be assisted by the legislative heft of the government.

This, Beth says, is to make sure the legislation is "operable".

However, there is a potential the debate could go on for a long time - up to two years as Ms Leadbeater told the Commons today

"This is the beginning of a national conversation about assisted dying and how that might look now in practice," Beth says.

MPs have voted in favour of advancing legislation that would legalise assisted dying in a historic parliamentary vote.

The outcome of the vote is:

• In favour: 330
• Opposed: 275

That equates to a majority of 55 votes.

As a reminder:This is the second reading of the bill - there are further stages for it to clear before it could become law.

The bill will now progress to the committee stage for scrutiny, with the Lords also to be given opportunities to express their views on the measure before it potentially becomes law.

The bill would allow adults who are terminally ill with just six months left to live to request medical assistance to end their lives.

Stay with us here on Sky News as we bring you reaction to this vote.

After four and a half hours of debate in the House of Commons, MPs are now voting on the legislation to legalise assisted dying.

As a reminder:This is the second reading of the bill - there are further stages for it to clear before it could become law.

We will have the result of the vote in a few minutes time - watch Sky News live in the stream - and follow live updates right here in the Politics Hub.

Alex Davies-Jones, the government minister, has delivered the closing speech in the debate - she says she will not share personal views as other ministers have not had the chance to do so.

However, she reiterates that any votes on the subject will be treated as "an issue of conscience" for MPs by the government - meaning there will be no requirement for politicians to vote on party lines.

Ms Davies-Jones says the government will respect any decisions made by parliament as a whole.

The minister pays tribute to Kim Leadbeataer for bringing the issue to the fore, and also thanked other campaigners.

"The one thing we have in common is that we will all experience death at some point," she says.

"Death is a topic we do not tend to talk about very much, but these discussions have undoubtedly enabled families up and down the country to talk openly about their wishes and how they feel about their own death.

"That powerful level of honesty is a tribute to how members of this house and campaigners have conducted themselves throughout, and I thank them for informing today's debate."

And with that, the debate - at least for now - is finished.

Dr Kieran Mullen, shadow justice minister, is wrapping up the debate from the opposition side of the chamber.

He starts by noting that this is a free vote, so there is no official Tory party position for him to set out.

On his own position, he says: "Like many members, I've struggled greatly with this decision. I don't believe there's a perfect choice to be made today - just different versions of imperfection."

He has previously worked as a doctor in A&E, and explains how he has seen both "the pain in the eyes of relatives who want to ease the suffering of their dying loved ones, but I've also held the hand of frail, elderly people, forgotten by their families, feeling themselves to be nothing but a burden".

Dr Mullen goes on to caution that modern medicine can do wonderful things, but it cannot solve everything.

He goes on: "The treatments we may use to help people with pain often rob them of what they may sincerely feel to be their own independence and dignity.

"Some people may not want to spend their final days in a drug-induced state of semi-consciousness to manage that pain."

This would also mark a profound societal change, with the state being asked to provide the means for someone to die.

"A deep respect for the sanctity of life is not the preserve only of religious thinkers," he adds.

Speaking directly to MPs, he says: "We should, above all else, vote with great humility, and with respect for every vote cast, in whichever direction."

Labour MPFlorence Eshalomi has given a deeply emotional speech in parliament about the risks of legalising assisted dying while health inequalities still remain in society.

She told the House: "It is my firm view that everyone speaking today shares the same goal - a more compassionate society in which everyone can live and die with dignity.

"But true compassion should have equality at its heart. It is for this reason, I cannot support the proposals as it stands.

"We must recognise the hard truth that health inequalities are wide and persistent. We know that black and minority ethnic disabled people have far worse health outcomes than the national average.

"I've seen this first hand, caring for my mother who suffered with sickle cell anemia."

Becoming emotional, Ms Eshalomi continued: "As a teenager, I would be by her side when she was in excruciating pain, explaining to a doctor who would not believe her when she told them she needed lifesaving medication.

"And sadly, this is still the reality today."

She also recounted the death of a man called Evan Smith, who also suffered from sickle cell anemia.

Struggling to keep her composure, she said: "He was in so much pain that he had to ring 999 from his hospital bed because he was denied oxygen and basic care by the doctors.

"Put simply, we should be helping people to live comfortable, pain-free lives on their own terms before we think about making it easier for them to die."

She argued that preventing coercion "will be difficult", adding: "I do not believe there has been enough scrutiny of this."

Becoming emotional once again, Ms Eshalomi said: "My late mother lived with chronic illness all her life, and I knew that one day, her pain would be too unbearable for her.

"But she did not let that limit her - she wanted to live. And I believe this bill would not protect the wishes of people in her situation today.

"Because freedom in death is only possible if you have had freedom in life."

Concluding her speech, Ms Eshalomi said: "How can we be possibly satisfied that this bill would deliver equality and freedom in death when we do not yet have this in life?"

Labour MP Marie Tidball has told MPs that making the decision on how will vote on the assisted dying legislation has been "one of the that I have had to make".

The MP forPenistone and Stocksbridge has lived with a disability for her entire life.

She told the House: "In my career in disability law and policy, I chose not to focus on debates about whether disabled people should be born, or whether we should die.

"Instead, I focused on enabling disabled people to live better, more fulfilling lives.

"Today I find myself voting in a way that I thought I never would, I will be voting in favour of moving the bill to the next stage of the legislative process."

Ms Tidball then shared her personal experience, saying: "When I was six years old, I had major surgery on my hips.

"I was in body plaster from my chest to my ankles, in so much pain and requiring so much morphine that my skin began to itch.

"I remember vividly laying in a hospital bed in Sheffield Children’s Hospital and saying to my parents 'I want to die, please let me die'."

She went on to say that she "needed to escape" from her own body, adding: "That moment has come back to me all these years later.

"That moment made it clear to me that if the bill was about intolerable suffering, I would not be voting for it."

The Labour MP said she had since lived a "good life", but added that that moment "gave me a glimpse of how I would want to live my death, just as I have lived my life".

"Empowered by choices available to me. Living that death with dignity and respect and having the comfort of knowing that I might have control over that very difficult time."

ByTamara Cohen, political correspondent

It's notable that both the justice secretary and shadow justice secretary are implacably opposed to assisted dying.

Robert Jenrick, who shadows Shabana Mahmood, called it a "bad law."

He would - if assisted dying passes - have a platform to raise these issues across the Despatch Box.

There was some heckling as he claimed it could be extended by "activist judges in Strasbourg".

He also outlined concerns about vulnerable people putting pressure on themselves.

"There will be people who are, and we all know them in our lives, shy, who have low self-esteem, who have demons within them."

He said he feared judges could still "sign them off" for assisted dying.

Away from the debate on assisted dying, the prime minister's deputy spokesman has been speaking to journalists following the resignation of Louise Haigh as transport secretary.

As a reminder, Ms Haigh quit after Sky News revealed that she admitted she pleaded guilty to an offence connected with incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.

The spokesman repeatedly refused to clarify whether the PM knew about the criminal conviction, and appeared to suggest that she resigned after new information came to light.

He said: "The prime minister has accepted her resignation, and she has acknowledged that the issue will inevitably be a distraction on delivering the work of government."

Asked if Sir Keir Starmer knew about Ms Haigh's conviction when he appointed her to the cabinet, he said: "Following further information emerging, the prime minister has accepted Louise Haigh's resignation."

He refused to say what the new information was, only saying he said he would not "get into individual conversations", and that ministers are expected to adhere to the ministerial code.

Asked whether she was asked to resign or offered, he simply said: "She resigned."