I hadn’t intended to write about stories relating to Wes Streeting twice in a row, but here we are! Yesterday, I spoke about his plans to divert healthcare funds to deprived areas to fix health inequalities that exist because of the Inverse Care Law. I drew comparisons (that I have drawn before) between it and the gospel deficit across the UK that mirrors what occurs within healthcare. You can read that post here.

In other “healthcare” related news, you may be aware that the British parliament narrowly voted (by only 24 votes) to pass legislation permitting assisted dying. It is notable that – along with many other MPs for deprived areas – the three Labour MPs that cover my area of Oldham, two of whom hold cabinet positions, all voted against the legislation. It is also notable that Wes Streeting – the current health secretary – also voted against it. More notable still, he came out after the vote to insist that there is no budget for this in the NHS and that killing people cannot be a spending priority for a National Health Service. Hard to argue with the reasonableness of that.

That is where today’s story comes in. Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister who voted in favour of the legislation, had this to say in response to Streeting’s public comments (as reported in The Times):

Sir Keir Starmer has rebuked his health secretary over the funding of assisted dying as he insisted he was confident the NHS would be able to handle the new law.

The prime minister said it was “his responsibility” to ensure assisted dying could be carried out safely, after Wes Streeting said there was “no budget” for the service to be introduced.

Starmer, who voted in favour of assisted dying, said he was “confident we’ve done [the] preparation” needed to ensure it could come into force.

At a time when the UK people are repeatedly being told by their Chancellor of the Exchequer that “tough decision” on spending have to be made, the Prime Minister is clearly of the view that though money for keeping people comfortable whilst they’re alive will be hard to find, we can certainly find the funds to ensure they die. Lovely stuff!

But I was particularly struck by that quoted section of what Starmer had to say. First, he was “confident that the NHS would be able to handle the new law”. Few have been confident for a while that the NHS would necessarily be able to treat them for things to help them live. We seem to have a perma-funding crisis for our health service. But, it turns out, we are absolutely confident the NHS will be there to help us die. It beggars belief that as these words are being uttered the Prime Minister doesn’t hear the glitch in what he is saying.

He carried on and insisted – with no sense of irony whatsoever – that it was his responsibility “to ensure assisted dying could be carried out safely”. Just read that again. Slowly. How, exactly, does one carry out assisted dying safely? Let me safely kill you now. These words are said like they’re a totally normal thing to say. Safely dying is an oxymoron.

He finishes off by insisting that “confident we’ve done [the] preparation” needed to ensure it could come into force. Which is unfortunate given that it seems they can’t do the preparation to ensure that we get GPs appointments when we need them and haven’t managed to do the preparation so that people with mental health issues are given the right and appropriate treatment in short order. But it’s okay because we have done the preparation to ensure that, should you want to die, we can definitely do that for you. Which is no doubt welcome news for all those who are suffering with mental health issues who are, as it stands, unable to get the specialist help they need but nevertheless will now have access to the very specific thing many of them want.

I have, as a campaign that ended in this legislation has been rumbling on for some time, spoken about this a number of times. See here, here, here, here and here. I was hopeful – and the closeness of the vote confirms that it was a distinct possibility – that it might have been struck down. It is, without doubt, a heinous piece of legislation. But the doublespeak and cognitive dissonance going on among its supporters – particularly encapsulated in this short quote from the Prime Minister – is just incredible.

God have mercy on us.