MP sponsoring bill in England and Wales says she agrees with Marie Curie that end-of-life care must be improved

Kim Leadbeater has urged MPs to back an amendment to the assisted dying bill which would commission a new assessment on the state of palliative care, a move first proposed by the bill’s opponents.

In a gesture to MPs who are voting against the bill, the MP sponsoring it said that she understood the concern about the quality of care for terminally ill people and said she believed that improving palliative services should not be in competition with assisted dying.