The Trump administration has lashed out at the UK after MPs passed Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill – accusing Britain of “standing for surrender and death”.
The president’s State Department said the US “reaffirms the sanctity of life” in an attack on the Labour MP’s Terminally Ill Adults Bill.
“The western world should stand for life, vitality and hope over surrender and death,” it said in a social media post from its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.
It said the bill is “euphemistically” said to be for terminally ill adults, but described it instead as “state-subsidised suicide”.
A UK-based campaigner on assisted dying hit back, saying: “They do know 12 US states already do assisted dying right?” The states where assisted dying is legal are California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
The attack comes a week after the bill, which would legalise assisted dying for those diagnosed with a terminal illness, passed with a slim majority of just 23 votes.
Those with fewer than six months to live would be able to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel including a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist.
The bill is now heading to the House of Lords for further scrutiny, where it is set to face more opposition.
The US intervention came after Sir Keir Starmer slapped down Wes Streeting for raising concerns over how assisted dying would be funded if it becomes law. The prime minister said he was “confident we’ve done that preparation” and that it is his job to “make sure the bill is workable, and that means workable in all its aspects”.
Last week’s crunch assisted dying vote, which saw the bill narrowly pass by just 23 votes, came after months of impassioned debate, culminating in a tense third reading debate on Friday.
Ms Leadbeater described the passing of the assisted dying bill at third reading as a “result that so many people need”.
The Spen Valley MP added: “When you’ve spent as much time as I have with people who have got experience of losing loved ones in very difficult circumstances, and you’ve spent time with terminally ill people who are just asking for choice at the end of their days, then this is absolutely the right thing to do.”
Among the MPs who backed the bill were the prime minister and his predecessor, Rishi Sunak. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, health secretary Mr Streeting and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, meanwhile, voted against.
The passage of the bill in parliament has put the UK at odds with the US, and marks the second time the State Department has criticised Britain under Sir Keir.
The department’s human rights arm previously warned of its “concerns about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom” after the prosecution of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt.
Labour and Ms Leadbeater have been asked to comment.
