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MPs vote in favor of historic bill after emotional debate

Posted on by L. Dreeye
MPs vote in favor of historic bill after emotional debate

Analysis

Analysis of voting results provides fascinating insight into party splits

Henry Zeffman
Chief Political Correspondent

It’s interesting to see how the votes are distributed.

Among Labor MPsthere was about a 60-40 percent split in favor of assisted death. While this is not surprising, note that Keir Starmer was among those who supported.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, joined him without making any public statements in advance about where she was leaning.

However, eight of Starmer’s cabinet ministers took a different route, including his deputy Angela Rayner and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. As was widely reported, they were joined by Health Minister Wes Streeting and Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood.

IN ConservativesRishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden, the former prime minister and deputy prime minister, were in the minority to support assisted dying. Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, voted against the legislation, but her shadow chancellor Mel Stride took a different route.

Liberal Democrats And Reform were also divided.

Ironically, only one of the British parties turned out to be united –
Greenall four of whom voted yes. It is the only political party that treats every vote as a free vote and never carries a whip.

Chart showing the party breakdown of MPs who voted for, against and did not vote for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill for England and Wales. The 330 MPs who voted in favor included 234 Labour, 61 Liberal Democrats, 23 Conservatives and 12 MPs from other parties. The 275 MPs who voted against included 147 Labour, 92 Conservative, 11 Lib Dem and 25 MPs from other parties. The 38 MPs who did not vote included 18 Labour, 3 Conservative and 17 MPs from other parties.