Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the funding of palliative and social care should be dealt with before assisted dying is considered in England and Wales, according to BBC News.
His comments mark the first time he has set out his position on the issue since becoming prime minister. MPs are expected to debate assisted dying again when Parliament returns in September.
The government is expected to stay officially neutral, but Burnham’s remarks indicate he is unlikely to personally support a bill being put forward by Labour MP Lauren Edwards.
Burnham told reporters he was not saying there should never be a debate on assisted dying, but said he believed something needed to happen first: the funding of palliative care and social care should be fixed. He said it was difficult to hold the wider debate while people were not receiving that care or reassurance about it.
The stance differs from that of former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who supported a previous attempt to legalise assisted dying and allowed parliamentary time for the issue to be considered.
In 2025, MPs backed a bill from Labour MP Kim Leadbeater to legalise assisted dying. However, it did not pass the House of Lords after a large number of proposed amendments delayed its progress until it ran out of time in April this year.
Opponents of that bill argued it contained serious weaknesses and could leave vulnerable people at risk of pressure to end their lives early. The proposed law, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, would have allowed adults expected to die within six months to receive help to end their own life, with safeguards attached.
Edwards plans to introduce an identical bill, saying she wants to “finish the job” begun by Leadbeater. Responding to Burnham, she said improving social care and legalising assisted dying were not alternatives and could proceed together.
She said the bill debated since October 2024 included a four-year implementation period, meaning that if her bill became law next year there would be until 2031 to address the system Burnham described as broken.
Jess Asato, a Labour MP who opposes the bill, said MPs must consider the safety of introducing what she called a flawed bill into a failing care system. She said meaningful choice and dignity at the end of life required adequate palliative and social care support.
Burnham was asked about assisted dying after announcing plans to reform social care, including the creation of a national care service and an effort to secure political agreement on funding.
Before the first Commons vote on the previous bill in 2024, Burnham told BBC Manchester he would “probably vote in favour of it” if he were in Parliament. He had abstained from a 2015 vote on a separate assisted dying bill because of concerns about safeguards and pressure on individuals.
He later told the BBC that family experience in the years since had changed his view, saying he believed people and families were allowed to suffer too much. At the same time, he said any support for the principle of assisted dying would need to be accompanied by a requirement for hospices to be properly funded before a new law was implemented.
