The pledge outlines policy changes that will support people at the end of their lives through increased funding of palliative care and rejecting attempts by assisted suicide campaigners to impose assisted suicide on Wales from Westminster.
If elected I pledge to:
Support increased funding for palliative care for people at the end of their lives
Support better palliative care by backing policies or legislation changes that will increase funding and provision of high-quality palliative care for people at the end of their lives
Palliative care involves improving the quality of life for adults or children facing a life-threatening illness. It consists of the prevention and relief of suffering by early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems.
There is currently a major gap in the provision of palliative care services in Wales.
Hospice UK has issued stark warnings about the state of palliative and end-of-life care in Wales, noting “existing financial pressures experienced by many palliative care providers in Wales” and that “the Bill could pose significant workforce challenges for Welsh hospice and palliative care providers”.
Marie Curie has said that “end of life care is at breaking point” in Wales.
A YouGov poll commissioned by King’s College London shows that 65% of the general population are worried about access to palliative and end-of-life care, and 41% think there is too little NHS resource allocated to palliative care.
Professor Katherine Sleeman, from the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London, said:
“The fact that 65% of UK adults say they are worried about access to palliative and end of life care should be a wake-up call for current and future governments. This is especially important given the large increase in palliative care need that is projected over the next decade”.
There is an urgent need for better funding of palliative care to fill the current major gap in the provision of palliative care services in Wales and prepare for the projected large increase in demand for these services.
Oppose attempts by MPs at Westminster to impose assisted suicide legislation on Wales
Oppose future attempts by assisted suicide supporting MPs or Peers at Westminster to impose assisted suicide legislation on Wales
The Westminster assisted suicide Bill has now fallen after the end of the Parliamentary session and will not become law after the Bill failed to pass the House of Lords.
Despite the Bill falling, assisted suicide campaigners are now trying to build support for bringing back the assisted suicide Bill in the next parliamentary session and then using the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords.
Taking the unprecedented route of using the Parliament Acts to bypass House of Lords’ scrutiny of a Private Members’ Bill would be politically explosive and divisive, setting a precedent that may worry many MPs. It would be the first time ever that the Parliament Acts would be used for a Private Members’ Bill – and recent polling confirms that taking this approach is not supported by the public.
If the Bill is brought into law in this way, it will also result in assisted suicide being imposed on Wales by Westminster.
Polling from JL Partners shows that the public does not support Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, even among those who support assisted suicide in principle, and it does not support forcing the Bill into law without the consent of the House of Lords.
The polling, undertaken by JL Partners in April 2026, revealed that only 11% of respondents from Wales disagree that the Government should only be able to push a Bill through Parliament without full scrutiny from the House of Lords if it was in their manifesto that the public voted for.
Additionally, 78% of respondents from Wales believe that, if a Bill isn’t watertight and hasn’t been fully scrutinised, it should not pass into law.
95% of respondents from Wales stated that legalising doctors assisting people who are terminally ill to end their own lives was not in their top three most important issues that Keir Starmer and the Labour government should be addressing right now.
Full details on the polling are available here. JL Partners CEO James Johnson’s analysis of the poll is available here.
The Senedd has already spoken decisively on this matter, with MSs voting by 26 votes to 19 in October 2024 against a motion calling for Westminster to introduce assisted suicide, making it clear that the Senedd opposes the imposition of assisted suicide on Wales. Of note, the Welsh First Minister, Eluned Morgan and Jeremy Miles, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, both voted against the motion.
While the Senedd narrowly voted for a Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) in February, as supporters of the motion made clear, the vote was not on whether assisted suicide should be made legal in Wales. Rather, it was a vote on a narrowly worded, technical, motion regarding how assisted suicide would be implemented in Wales should it become law.
When it comes to the question of whether assisted suicide should be made legal in Wales, as mentioned above, the Senedd decisively voted against assisted suicide in October 2024, only weeks before the Second Reading of Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill in Westminster.
Legalising assisted suicide would be a dangerous step, and this Bill is a direct threat to vulnerable people across Wales. It is wholly improper for the Parliament in Westminster to legislate on a devolved healthcare matter, particularly when the Senedd so recently voted against assisted suicide.
Are you an MS candidate? Click here or email pledge@righttolife.org.uk to sign the pledge.
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