Patrick Hurley MP: Why I won't support assisted dying bill
Plus: Anger as United Utilities profits double and Andrew Brown's What's On guide to the week ahead
Hello and welcome to the 36th edition of The Southport Lead.
Today, we open the newsletter to Southport MP Patrick Hurley to write exclusively for The Southport Lead to explain his feelings on assisted dying after the matter returned to the House of Commons. Legislation to allow people with terminal illnesses to end their lives is currently moving through Parliament and MPs on Friday debated an amendment which have added more limits to when healthcare professionals could provide assisted dying services.
Patrick reflects on his own experience of the death of his beloved wife, along with the testimonies of others who told their stories either directly to him or through their own MPs. As he says, “since I was elected to Parliament last July, I have not come across any topic remotely as deeply personal and as morally challenging as this”.
Also in today’s newsletter: United Utilities announces that profits have doubled one month after hiking prices for customers and in the midst of potential enforcement action by the Environment Agency.
Paying subscribers can also read Andrew Brown’s guide to what’s happening in Southport this week. If you’d like access to this each week and help support independent local journalism free from intrusive adverts and clickbait, please consider taking out a paid subscription.
Assisted dying too complex to be solved by legislation
By Patrick Hurley, Labour MP for Southport
We all recognise that when we speak of assisted dying, we are touching on one of the heaviest matters imaginable. Describing any issue as “life or death” may feel overused, but in this case it reflects the gravity we instinctively understand. The debate before us carries enormous weight.
Since I was elected to Parliament last July, I have not come across any topic remotely as deeply personal and as morally challenging as this. MPs have listened to heart-breaking accounts from constituents: families torn by watching loved ones endure unbearable suffering as life draws to a close. We share the longing to see those nearing death treated with compassion, afforded comfort, and granted the chance to leave this world with dignity.
I write not only from discussions in Westminster but from my own experience. When cancer claimed my wife, I witnessed up close the helpless anguish it brings. I saw dignity slip away in her final days, and I felt the natural urge to spare her further pain. I know why so many reach out for a way to end suffering that seems both merciful and humane.
Across the country, people are looking for reassurance: that no one will be forced to suffer without any hope of relief; that they - or their loved ones - can face the end with self-respect. As an MP, I share that hope for everyone in my constituency and indeed for everyone in the country.
Yet, despite the compelling need for a securely defined system, I remain deeply uneasy about unintended fallout. I accept that, in carefully controlled circumstances, assisting someone to die can be an act of kindness and compassion - when pain is overwhelming, quality of life has vanished, and medical prospects are bleak, helping bring about a peaceful end can feel profoundly humane.
However, I have come to believe that no legislative text can navigate every nuance of such a delicate matter. The difficulties encountered by the Bill in Committee only underlined this for me.
Under current law, assisting or encouraging suicide is a criminal offence - a clear rule that underscores how seriously we treat these cases. Prosecutors follow detailed CPS guidelines weighing factors for and against pursuing charges.
Between 2009 and 2024, the police referred 187 assisted-suicide cases to the CPS, but only four led to convictions - a record that, to my mind, demonstrates a system that balances compassion with necessary safeguards.
This legal framework entrusts discretion to prosecutors and the courts, allowing each tragic circumstance to be assessed on its own merits. A new statute, however well-intentioned, would replace that flexible judgement with rigid criteria. By codifying eligibility narrowly, it would inevitably exclude some who deserve relief and include others whose situations we would not consider appropriate for assisted dying.
More troubling still, it could expose loving family members to prosecution simply because someone’s case falls just outside the statutory definitions. Under a legalistic regime, the CPS and judges would no longer have the latitude to apply public-interest considerations as they currently do; they would be bound by the letter of the law, not the spirit of care.
Attempting to capture in legislation the full breadth of human suffering is, I fear, impossible. Any blanket rules will be too blunt an instrument for decisions this intimate and complex.
I do not question the sincerity or compassion of those who drafted this Bill or campaigned for its passage. They seek to alleviate profound pain, and their motives are honourable. But I believe that the route of legislation, however carefully crafted, cannot do justice to the deeply personal nature of each individual’s end-of-life journey.
Assisted dying may indeed be the right choice in certain cases. But prescribing it through a one-size-fits-all statute is, I believe, the wrong approach. Instead, we should preserve and refine our current system - one that balances empathy and accountability, and entrusts essential decisions to the discretion of those who must weigh them case by case.
United Utilities plans biggest ever shareholder payout as profits double before customers bills hiked
By Jamie Lopez
United Utilities is set to issue its biggest ever shareholder payout after hiking prices for customers.
The North West water company saw pre-tax profits double from £170m to £350m in the year ending March 31, 2025 at a time campaigners continued to warn over sewage being dumped into rivers and seas.
Despite the huge hike in profits, United Utilities customers - who have no choice over the provider - saw their annual bills increase by an average £84 last month. This formed part of a 32% increase over the next five years agreed by regular Ofwat to fund investment in infrastructure to clean up rivers.
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