UK Prime Minister's former Chief of Staff slams assisted suicide bill

(Right to Life UK) Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff has come out in opposition to the assisted suicide Bill, saying she fears that vulnerable people may face pressure to end their lives. 

Baroness Sue Gray criticised the assisted suicide Bill during a Committee Stage debate on Friday, 12 December, warning that vulnerable people may seek to end their lives by assisted suicide “simply because they have been too worn down for too long”.  

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for those with a prognosis of six months or less. Despite the requirement for an individual to have been given a prognosis of six months or less to be eligible for assisted suicide, Baroness Gray said there was “nothing in the Bill that would stop a person accessing an assisted death for reasons that were nothing to do with their illness but simply because they had been too worn down for too long by problems that could have been solved with the right care, attention and funding”. 

Among those who would likely be most vulnerable to assisted suicide are homeless people, according to Baroness Gray.

“Not only are people who are homeless, by definition, cut off from and invisible to key public services, including healthcare, but they often have complex further needs, such as abusive relationships, poor mental health and addiction”, Baroness Gray said.

“I am especially concerned that we are looking to introduce it at a time when the cost of living means that homelessness has reached critical levels throughout the UK”, she added.

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Baroness Gray (@SueGrayLab) argues that assisted suicide would have a disproportionately harmful effect on disadvantaged groups of people, especially at a time when homelessness and other cost of living related issues are so prevalent.

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4:28 PM · Dec 12, 2025

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“How can we imagine that they will not be at risk of being offered an assisted death simply because those needs are judged too hard to meet, or because someone else has decided that their lives are not worth while?” she said.

Baroness Gray continued, “Only yesterday, the Government published a national plan to end homelessness, and I commend the Government for that, but there are some shocking statistics in that plan about the numbers who are homeless”.

“It paints a picture of utter despair and isolation for some of the most vulnerable in our society. It is wholly impossible to justify leaving out safeguards that would prevent homeless people being coerced into an assisted death, whether through abuse, absence of choice or simply their despair”, she said. 

Baroness Gray highlighted how cases like this have happened in Canada, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal....

Read the entire article at Right to Life UK.