Kim Leadbeater on assisted dying, fractious politics and Jo Cox
The News Agents
Global
4.2 • 4.3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
Next week, MPs will get their first opportunity in almost a decade to vote on extending the choices available to terminally ill people at the end of their lives. A contentious subject, The Assisted Dying bill is being championed by MP Kim Leadbeater, sister of the murdered MP Jo Cox.
Lewis joined Kim in her parliamentary office to talk about the bill, her optimism for the future, and the legacy of her sister.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.5 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:13.0 | We've come to Parliament because next week, at the end of next week anyway, our politics is likely to be dominated by one issue and that is the assisted dying |
| 0:22.6 | bill. |
| 0:23.6 | This legislation, which could be the biggest change to our social life in Britain since |
| 0:28.6 | gay marriage was passed, the biggest change in our individual relationship with the state |
| 0:33.6 | is set to receive its second reading on Friday. |
| 0:36.6 | So MPs in a free vote, they won't be told what to do by their whips, |
| 0:40.3 | will vote on whether for terminally ill people doctors will be able to help them die by the patient's own hand. |
| 0:48.7 | It's being championed by Kim Ledbeter, the MP for the Spend Valley in Yorkshire. |
| 0:52.9 | She came top of the private members ballot |
| 0:55.2 | lottery full backbench MPs and the winner, lucky winner, gets to put down a piece of legislation |
| 1:00.6 | of their choice with guaranteed parliamentary time, a rare chance to change the law. She chose, after |
| 1:08.2 | much representation, to devote that shot to this issue. |
| 1:12.2 | Contingency, then, luck, that she should be in this position for however long at the centre of our national debate. |
| 1:18.6 | But it is not the first time that she has had the opportunity to ponder at the road not travelled, at the overwhelming force of fate. |
| 1:26.9 | Because she is only an MP at all because her |
| 1:29.5 | beloved sister the Labour MP Joe Cox her predecessor in her seat was savagely and brutally murdered |
| 1:35.5 | by a far-right thug in the dying days of the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016. Joe famously said |
| 1:43.3 | that there was more in common than that which divides us. |
| 1:45.6 | It's what's led Kim into politics, yet it's fair to say that in all these years since her death, |
| 1:50.3 | it hasn't always felt that way. So we wanted to bring you this extended conversation with Kim |
... |
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