Starmer says he would be “open” to making time available for a private member’s bill to allow assisted dying. He says this is the sort of matter that should be dealt with by a private member’s bill. There should be a free vote, he says. And he says he would vote in favour of changing the law, provided there were sufficient safeguards.
This is significant because, without the government being willing to make extra time available, private member’s bills on controversial issues like this can normally be talked out.
Starmer has said before that he favours a new vote on this, but he has not suggested Labour would guarantee time to allow it to pass (assuming a majority of MPs were in favour – which is not a given at this point.)
UPDATE: See the post at 9.52am for the full quote.
Filters BETA
This is what Keir Starmer said in his LBC phone-in about a Labour government making time for MPs to fully debate a private member’s bill to allow assisted dying.
When I was chief prosecutor, director of public prosecutions, I looked at every single case that the police investigated of assisted dying … So I’ve looked at probably more files or circumstances here than many others.
And I, as a chief prosecutor, drew up guidelines to try to make the law we’ve got work reasonably well, on the basis that we had to protect people from being exploited. But on the other hand, there were obvious cases of compassionate acts, usually by loving family members, in accordance with the wishes of somebody who wanted to end their own life.
We tried to make the current law work. I totally feel that we ought to actually change the law. It shouldn’t really be for the prosecutor to try and make the law work when it doesn’t really. It’d be better for parliament to actually change the law.
So I am an advocate of a change to the law. Obviously that change has to be very carefully crafted.
And I think the best route would probably be a private member’s bill, which is normally dealt with on a Friday in parliament. And yes, I would be open to making time for that. I think it should be a free vote.
Asked to confirm he would vote to change the law, Starmer said he would, “subject to it being the right change”.
Q: Do you think the police should investigate the sexual abuse allegations against Prince Andrew?
Starmer said he did not know the details of this, only what he had seen in the papers. But where credible allegations are made, they should be investigated, he said.
And that was the end of the phone-in.
Q: You want to impose VAT on private school fees. But why won’t you remove their charitable status too? If they keep that, they get tax relief on donations, funded by the taxpayer?
Starmer says Labour does not need to change the charitable status of schools to impose VAT on their fees. He avoids the point about how leaving it in place allows them to get tax relief on donations. And he defends the VAT policy, saying schools will not have to pass on the VAT charge.
Q: Should the Metropolitan police be investigating potential war crimes in Gaza?
Starmer says he was “surprised” to learn about this. He did not know this was happening until Boris Johnson spoke about it in a Daily Telegraph story yesterday.
The Met told the Telegraph that it had a duty to support the international criminal court, which is investigating war crimes in Gaza.
Starmer said the brother of a close friend of his was involved in the Post Office Horizon scandal. He said it was a gross miscarriage of justice. The government should speed up the payment of compensation, he said.
Starmer says he would be “open” to making time available for a private member’s bill to allow assisted dying. He says this is the sort of matter that should be dealt with by a private member’s bill. There should be a free vote, he says. And he says he would vote in favour of changing the law, provided there were sufficient safeguards.
This is significant because, without the government being willing to make extra time available, private member’s bills on controversial issues like this can normally be talked out.
Starmer has said before that he favours a new vote on this, but he has not suggested Labour would guarantee time to allow it to pass (assuming a majority of MPs were in favour – which is not a given at this point.)
UPDATE: See the post at 9.52am for the full quote.
Starmer says junior doctors have a “good case” when they say they deserve a pay rise.
He says Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, should be negotiating with them now.
Q: What do you think about the BMA saying junior doctors should not go back to work during the strike when hospitals call an emergency?
Starmer says he is “troubled” by this. Until now the system for an emergency override has been working well. He says he does not know why that has broken down now.
Q: How will you decide what level of borrowing is sensible?
Starmer says Labour will put money into its green energy plan, but it will be “an agile investment”. He says he wants to know what the money will be for. It is designed to bring in private sector investment.
Q: Can you guarantee that Labour will get investing up to £28bn a year at some point during the first term?
Starmer says that will be subject to Labour’s fiscal rules.
He says he is “confident” he can get to that figure. But the fiscal rules come first.
Q: So it’s a gold-plated ambition, not a pledge?
It’s a “confident ambition”, says Starmer.
Q: Will you raise the income tax threshold to help lower-paid people?
Starmer says he does want to lower the tax burden for working people. But he won’t make unfunded promises he cannot keep. That is what Liz Truss did. And the economy crashed, he says.
Q: The tax take is at its highest for 70 years. One paper says there will be no tax cuts for two years under Labour. Is that your plan?
Starmer says he does not accept that. He says he wants to bring the tax burden down, but he wants to do it by promoting growth.
He says there has been too much chopping and changing. The year before last, there were four chancellors, he says.
Keir Starmer is starting his LBC phone-in.
Nick Ferrari is presenting.
Q: You talked about Project Hope yesterday. Was the speech mission accomplished?
Yes, says Starmer. He says he wanted to weld together hope with the reassurance already provided.
Q: Some papers say the speech was thin on detail.
Starmer says every year people say this. Last year he set out five big missions in massive speeches. Then people complain he is being too ambitious, and ask if he can achieve what he wants.
And the following year – people ask what he stands for, he says.
He says, as an example, he has a mission to halve violence against women and girls. That will be hard to do, he says. But people cannot really complain that they don’t know what he stands for.
Good morning. Keir Starmer will be doing his “Call Keir” phone-in on LBC shortly. We heard quite a lot from him yesterday, but there is always more to ask, and he might have more to say about the timing of the general election. Despite Rishi Sunak saying yesterday that he does not expect to call a May election.
Labour sources, who spent the last few weeks talking up the prospects of a spring poll, almost certainly to roll the pitch for attacks on Sunak for “bottling” it, are claiming they are not convinced. In her London Playbook briefing for Politico, Eleni Courea reports:
Senior Labour strategists tell Playbook they still think that’s when it will take place. One senior party official bet £100 last night that the GE will happen between April and June.
But Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading elections expert, told the Today programme this morning that for a long time he has been planning his schedule on the assumption that he will need to be on duty for an election in October or November. He said:
Now, there is beginning to be a consensus it might be 14 November.
All the parties have decided to hold their party conferences rather early next autumn.
The prime minister will end the Conservative conference on 2 October. That might be the starting gun.
Starmer is on LBC at 9am. Otherwise, the diary looks quiet today, but Sunak is doing a visit in northern England in the late morning.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiigFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvbGl2ZS8yMDI0L2phbi8wNS9sYXRlc3QtdWstcG9saXRpY3MtbmV3cy1nZW5lcmFsLWVsZWN0aW9uLWtlaXItc3Rhcm1lci1yaXNoaS1zdW5hay1sYWJvdXItdG9yaWVzLWxpdmXSAYoBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL2xpdmUvMjAyNC9qYW4vMDUvbGF0ZXN0LXVrLXBvbGl0aWNzLW5ld3MtZ2VuZXJhbC1lbGVjdGlvbi1rZWlyLXN0YXJtZXItcmlzaGktc3VuYWstbGFib3VyLXRvcmllcy1saXZl?oc=5
2024-01-05 08:52:00Z
CBMiigFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvbGl2ZS8yMDI0L2phbi8wNS9sYXRlc3QtdWstcG9saXRpY3MtbmV3cy1nZW5lcmFsLWVsZWN0aW9uLWtlaXItc3Rhcm1lci1yaXNoaS1zdW5hay1sYWJvdXItdG9yaWVzLWxpdmXSAYoBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL2xpdmUvMjAyNC9qYW4vMDUvbGF0ZXN0LXVrLXBvbGl0aWNzLW5ld3MtZ2VuZXJhbC1lbGVjdGlvbi1rZWlyLXN0YXJtZXItcmlzaGktc3VuYWstbGFib3VyLXRvcmllcy1saXZl
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar