In March, The Times reported that the “vast majority of voters” in the UK supported a change in the law on assisted dying. An opinion poll showed 75 per cent in favour. Melanie Reid later wrote that a change in the law was now the “will of the people”.
However, in this poll, the majority of those in favour were only “somewhat” supportive. The figure for “strongly support” was just 35 per cent. When people were next asked whether they wanted their MP to vote in favour of a change in the law, vote against, or vote with their conscience, less than half (43 per cent) said “vote in favour”. Regrettably, although the headline figure of overall support was repeated by many media outlets, none reported the answer to the second question.
