The Prime Minister is right to focus on improving care - MPs must follow his lead

With all that acknowledged, I keep my constituents at home in Newcastle-under-Lyme at the forefront of my mind every single day.

As I said in the House of Commons in April, no Member of Parliament should be forced to choose between our families and doing our job - honouring the trust of local people who elected us and - importantly - holding Ministers to account. The fact that I was forced to make such a choice on Friday 20 June 2025 will stay with me forever.

My father-in-law died, as I was leaving Parliament, having cast my vote against the assisted dying Bill on that Friday in June. I left his bedside and travelled to Westminster to do my job before - in theory - returning to my wife and family. I didn’t get back in time. No democratically elected representative of the people should ever have to make that choice.

Over the last year, I have argued for change because I am determined to ensure that no other Parliamentarians are placed in the same position as I was. If someone is told a loved one has days or hours to live, as we were, people should be given the support, compassion and decency we would all want extended to ourselves.

That experience of loss, however, also reinforced something else: how significant and valued every person is, even at the very end of their life. Across our wonderful country, people facing death should have access to the best palliative care we can provide, and be able to access real and comprehensive support from a functional and dependable care system. For many, especially those who suffer from the structural inequalities we still see all around us, that is simply not the case. That is why I welcome the Prime Minister's decision to place social and palliative care reform ahead of any renewed debate on assisted dying. That’s leadership.

I always try to disagree without being disagreeable. We have all seen that reasonable people come to different conclusions on the most important issue that is assisted dying. Some of my closest friends in Parliament, whom I respect and have fought alongside, voted one way, and I voted the other in the previous session. I know that they were motivated by genuine compassion and a desire to reduce suffering. I understand that motivation.

But compassion also demands that we ask whether people truly have meaningful choices when the care available to them, in communities across the kingdom, is too often inaccessible, inconsistent and overstretched.

A survey commissioned by King’s College London in 2024 found that 65% of adults reported being worried about accessing palliative care services. In June 2025, Hospice UK launched a report exploring access to palliative care and end-of-life services in rural and island communities. The report found that around two-thirds of people living in rural areas struggle to access vital palliative and end-of-life care close to home. That is hugely important in communities like mine, nestled on Staffordshire’s borders with Cheshire and Shropshire.

Too many families discover, often at the most difficult moment of their lives, that accessing high-quality end-of-life care depends on which services happen to be available locally, or whether a hospice, like the excellent, fabulous and caring DougieMac in North Staffordshire, can continue to raise enough charitable funding to keep its doors open. Hospice UK data shows that nearly 60% of hospices in England have made or are considering cuts to frontline services, as financial pressures across the sector continue to intensify.

Meanwhile, many of us based in the North and north Midlands are reeling in horror at the investigation into the failings at Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group. The investigation is looking at the failures of leadership that saw vulnerable disabled adults left in filthy conditions without the dignity and support they deserve.

Yet this isn’t a standalone scandal – over many years, a multitude of care homes for elderly and dying people have been found to be either purposefully neglectful or woefully underfunded. The Care Quality Commission now regards more than 2,500 care homes across England as "requiring improvement". We have a big job ahead of us.

Of course, the vast, vast majority of care workers perform extraordinary work every day - yet a broken system leaves them undervalued and underpaid. That cannot be the foundation upon which we ask Parliament to make one of the most profound life-and-death decisions of our time.

During last year's assisted dying debate, I argued that our efforts should focus on making palliative care fit for the twenty-first century. I believe that even more strongly today, not least because that failed bill has been resurrected for yet another attempt at pushing it through Parliament. If even one person feels driven to choose an assisted death because suitable care is unavailable, or because they worry that their family cannot cope because support is inadequate, then we will have failed to be the compassionate society that we think we are.

For decades, governments of every political colour have promised to reform adult social care. Most have failed. Meanwhile, demographic pressures have only intensified. Our people are living longer, often with complex conditions that require sustained, coordinated support. We all know and see the families in our communities that shoulder enormous caring responsibilities, frequently with little recognition or help.

The very purpose of my party, the Labour Party, is to deliver care and compassion for all of us. Like my party, I’ve always been guided by the principle of “not walking by on the other side”. This is especially important for the most vulnerable people in our society, because effective and accessible support cannot be limited to those who can afford it.

The Burnham Labour Government's commitment to tackling the age-old challenge of adult social care, strengthening integration with our beloved National Health Service, improving conditions for our workforce and placing palliative care at the heart of what we do now is long overdue. It’s - helpfully - much closer to the core of our national priorities, speaking to the everyday needs of millions of people - and shaping the kind of country we want to be.

The approach to improving the broken care system must be comprehensive. That’s why I welcome the government’s additional announcement of a £343m plan to open 159 NHS mental health centres right across England, giving people earlier local support and specialist crisis care outside A&E.

The Prime Minister is absolutely right when he says “nobody should be left to struggle with their mental health alone.” That, critically, includes those struggling with terminal illnesses. It would be reckless to introduce assisted suicide at a time when thousands are left without the treatment and support they need to deal with serious mental ill health. A fair, inclusive and decent society ensures that all of us have an equal chance at accessing help - no matter our status, health or ability.

For me, one important truth stands out. A society should be judged not simply by how it responds when life is ending, but by how determined it is to ensure every person receives dignity, comfort and support until that moment comes.

The Prime Minister has set the tone with a new and clear direction. Now Parliament must deliver it.

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Adam Jogee is the MP for Newcastle-Under-Lyme.

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