Burnham delivers significant blow to assisted dying bill as he launches attempt to ‘fix’ social care funding

Andy Burnham has delivered a significant blow to attempts to legalise assisted suicide, after he called for the “fixing” of social care and palliative care funding before there was any debate on legalisation.

The new prime minister spoke out yesterday (Wednesday) after delivering a major speech on reform of social care in England (see separate story), at a care home in north London.

He told the media, when questioned about legalising assisted dying: “I take the view that that debate – and I don’t say that there shouldn’t be a debate at some point about those issues – personally, I think there’s something that needs to happen first.

“That is the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care.

“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.

“That’s the way I kind of see this, and that’s the position that I will stick to.”

His comments provide a significant boost to disabled activists fighting legalisation, with a vote by MPs on whether an assisted dying private member’s bill should proceed due to take place on 11 September.

The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill was first introduced to parliament in autumn 2024, but it ran out of time to complete its progress through the Lords at the end of the last parliamentary session in April.

Now the same private members’ bill that was narrowly approved by MPs in June 2025 is set to begin its progress through the Commons, in a fresh attempt at legalisation led by Labour MP Lauren Edwards.

But a vote against the bill on 11 September will see this latest bid to open the door to assisted suicide in England and Wales defeated.

Among concerns about the bill that have been raised by disabled activists is the risk that terminally-ill people could be coerced into an early death, particularly if there is no legal right to independent living and no universal access to good quality palliative care.

Mike Smith, from Not Dead Yet UK, said today: “Not Dead Yet UK welcomes the comments made by Andy Burnham on the importance of fixing social care and palliative care before any meaningful debate can be had on assisted suicide.

“We’ve been saying this for years and we are glad he agrees.”

But Smith warned that Burnham did not control the private members’ bill process.

He said: “The Lauren Edwards bill, which comes before parliament on 11 September 2026, is substantially the same bill that was recently examined by the Lords, with all its flaws.”

He said the safeguards that peers sought to introduce earlier this year were not added to the bill and concerns about the legislation “remain entirely unanswered”.

BuDS Disability Service, another disabled people’s organisation that opposes legalisation, also welcomed Burnham’s “sensible” comments.

A BuDS spokesperson said yesterday: “British advocates for assisted suicide claim it is necessary because many people die in pain and distress that could be averted if they took their own life through medically-assisted suicide.

“It is obvious that this claim relies on NHS and hospice palliative and end-of-life care being inadequate.

“The PM is perfectly right to say that the first step must be to fix palliative and end-of-life care, and only then to assess whether the claim made by advocates of assisted dying is correct.”