Ex Labour minister says he is terminally ill and now in favour of assisted death

Former Labour minister Frank Field has said he is terminally ill, and that this experience has changed his view on assisted death.

During the House of Lords second reading of her assisted dying Bill today, Baroness Meacher read out a statement from Lord Field, who expressed that he was too ill to partake in the debate.

The statement read: “I’ve just spent a short period in a hospice and I’m not well enough to participate in today’s debate. If I had been, I’d have spoken strongly in favour of the second reading. I changed my mind on assisted dying when an MP friend dying of cancer wanted to die early before the full horror effects set in, but was denied this opportunity.”
He claimed the argument that the Bill would exert pressure on people to end their lives is “unfounded” by referring to the US and Australia, where assisted deaths currently account for less than one per cent of deaths.

The bill, first introduced to the Lords in May, aims to enable adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life.

Born in London, Field was educated at St Clement Danes Holborn Estate Boys Grammar School before studying economics at the University of Hull. In his youth, he was a member of the Conservative Party, but left due to his opposition to South Africa’s apartheid system. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow for four years from 1964 and in the same year became a further education teacher in Southwark and Hammersmith until he became the Director of the Child Poverty Action Group 1969-79, and of the Low Pay Unit 1974-1980.

Following the 1997 election, with Labour in power, Field joined the government of Tony Blair as the Minister of Welfare Reform at the Department of Social Security with the rank of Minister of State. After Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election, he was given the role of “poverty czar” in David Cameron’s coalition government. On 18th June 2015 he became chairman of the Work and Pension Select Committee.