How did Jewish MPs vote on the assisted dying bill?

On Friday, the controversial assisted dying bill passed a key vote in the House of Commons.

330 MPs voted for the legislation, known officially as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, and 275 voted against.

The vote was unwhipped, meaning that MPs were free to vote with their conscience, rather than along party lines.

Although Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and most cabinet members backed the legislation, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voted against it.

However, former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak and his ex-deputy Oliver Dowden joined Starmer in the aye lobby and backed the bill.

Like much of the Jewish community, Parliament’s Jewish MPs were divided on the topic.

Speaking in favour of the legislation on Friday was Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP Peter Prinsley.

The ear, nose and throat surgeon told the Commons: “I have seen uncontrollable pain, choking and, I am sorry to say, the frightful sight of a man bleeding to death while conscious, as a cancer had eaten away at the carotid artery.”

He continued: “I am speaking here of people who are dying, not people living well who have chronic or terminal diseases. We are talking about people at the end of their lives wishing to choose the time and place to die. This is not some slippery slope. We are shortening death, not life, for our patients. This is not life or death; this is death or death.”

Solicitor General Sarah Sackman KC, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, also backed the legislation.

In a letter to constituents ahead of the vote she said: “As its title indicates, the Bill is about allowing terminally ill people to die with greater dignity and control. Its purpose is to provide a right which would prevent unnecessary suffering. In the words of Rabbi Jonathan Romain, the Bill is about shortening death – not shortening life.”

Other Jewish MPs who voted for the legislation included: Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband, Cabinet Office Minister Georgia Gould, Bristol North East MP Damien Egan, Makerfield MP Josh Simons and Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton.

The Conservatives’ sole Jewish MP, Dr Julian Lewis, who represents New Forest East, spoke against the legislation.

He told MPs that he had consistently opposed similar legislation because of concerns over safeguards: “Even if practical safeguards could be erected against external coercion, I have always felt that there was no prospect whatsoever of having effective safeguards against internal pressures on someone to request assisted dying or even euthanasia.”

But he did say that: “There should be no bar on the use of painkilling medication, if that is the only way to ease human suffering, even if it leads to a speedier death”.

After the vote, Hendon MP David Pinto-Duchinsky – who also opposed the bill – said in a letter to constituent that: “I am concerned that for too many, the right to die may risk becoming perceived by some as a duty to die. There is a real risk that people will opt to end their lives out of concern about the burden they are placing on others.

He also echoed Lewis’s concerns, saying that there were “serious questions about the efficacy of a number of safeguards in the Bill and how they will actually operate in practice. It appears that important elements of the implementation of the Bill and its implications have not been fully thought through.”

Jewish Labour MPs Ben Coleman, who represents Chelsea and Fulham and Matthew Patrick, who represents Wirral West, also opposed the legislation.

Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel did not vote.

Ahead of the vote, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke against the legislation, saying that: “the granting of a right to end one’s own life, would simultaneously impose a new and immeasurable pressure upon terminal patients who are already extremely vulnerable.”

Following the bill’s passage at second reading, it does not yet become law, and will progress to committee stage, where MPs will take a more detailed examination of the text of the proposed legislation.

A date for the next stage has not yet been set.