All Conservative Party leadership candidates have expressed strong reservations about making assisted suicide legal should they win the leadership competition, as well as saying they support the abortion law remaining as it is.
With the four remaining leadership candidates to be whittled down to two next week, yesterday and today, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly were each asked their views on assisted suicide and abortion.
Tugendhat on assisted suicide and abortion
Tugendhat expressed strong reservations about making assisted suicide legal.
While Tugenhat said part of his job included “championing freedom”, he said it also included making sure “we support the most vulnerable and that’s why I’m deeply deeply deeply uncomfortable with this assisted dying”.
His strong reservations around legalising assisted suicide were met with a large round of applause from the crowd at the Conservative Party conference.
“I have seen too many reports, including from countries with jurisdictions that I respect very greatly like Canada, where I’ve seen somebody, seen reports through military friends about somebody with PTSD, who instead of getting access to the care that he required was being suggested that actually care was never going to be available, and would never help, and that actually he should choose an easier and I quote ‘cheaper’ alternative, that is wrong and I will never support it”, he added.
This statement also received applause.
Asked specifically if he would vote against an assisted suicide Bill, Tugendhat replied “I never say never because I need to read the bill but I think it’s immensely unlikely that I could support it”.
Tugendhat also said he supports leaving the current abortion law as it is.
Badenoch on assisted suicide and abortion
When Kemi Badenoch was asked the same question she replied “On assisted suicide personally I am sympathetic to assisted suicide but I know how government works, I have seen it from the inside, I do not trust any government or civil service to be able to deliver this”.
The crowd responded with strong applause when Badenoch voiced her concerns about introducing assisted suicide.
Like Tugendhat, she also said she does not want to change the abortion law, adding that she’s “seen what’s happened in the US, a lot of morality votes end up just being turf wars between right and left, they’re not making life better for anyone. I think we have sensible laws in this country”.
Jenrick on assisted suicide and abortion
Tugendhat and Badenoch’s reservations about making assisted suicide legal come at the same time as shortly after other leadership hopeful, Robert Jenrick, has had a change of mind on the matter. Despite voting in favour of legalising assisted suicide in 2015, last month a report indicated that Jenrick had changed his mind and no longer backs assisted suicide, a change apparently motivated by concerns about Canada’s experience with assisted suicide legislation.
Speaking at the party conference earlier today, Jenrick confirmed this saying he “would vote against assisted dying”.
“I’m very concerned about the unintended consequences of changing the law”, he added, making explicit reference to the “the very severe, unintended consequences” of making assisted dying legal in Canada.
“I would just urge everyone, my parliamentary colleagues, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, to think this through very very carefully, don’t rush into this, because I don’t want to be living in a country where there are elderly people, in fact, in Canada, there are quite young people who have been pushed into something which is unnecessary and is deeply regrettable.
“So I am inclined to vote against, but it is entirely up to other conservative MPs to reach their own conclusions”.
Regarding abortion, Jenrick said he has “always voted in Parliament to protect and preserve a woman’s right to choose” , but that he does not think “law should be changed further”.
He elaborated: “Just before the General Election, there were suggestions to make changes, for example, to decriminalise it altogether. I think that is a mistake, and I would have voted against it then, and I would vote against it again if it comes forward in the future.”
This was met with strong applause from the audience.
Jenrick appeared to be referring to amendments brought forward to the Criminal Justice Bill that would have made it more likely that healthy babies would be aborted at home for any reason, up to birth.
Cleverly on assisted suicide and abortion
The final remaining leadership candidate, James Cleverly, voted against assisted suicide in 2015 and said “if you want to know where I stand now, look at what I did last time we had a vote on this”.
He said he voted against assisted suicide in 2015 because “it is the thin end of the wedge”, adding that while it is “natural” for people to want to alleviate the suffering of loved ones, he does “not want someone killing themselves or being killed because they feel guilty that they are a burden. They are not a burden, they have been a contributor to society through their life. We owe them a debt of gratitude, not a poison pill”.
This strong statement received applause from the audience.
In regard to abortion, Cleverly stated “the situation we have works” adding that he thinks it “should be legal, safe and rare”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “The fact that all four candidates contending for the leadership of the Conservative Party have expressed strong reservations about making assisted suicide legal is a welcome development in the Conservative Party leadership race”.
“Making assisted suicide legal, including the clear threat it poses to people with disabilities and people who are otherwise vulnerable, is a very dangerous idea”.
