Significant Ties

The indomitable Hannah Sharland writes:

One of the major lobby organisations calling for MPs to back a new assisted dying bill, Dignity in Dying, has significant ties to Labour Party prime minister Keir Starmer. On top of this, a board member of its sister charity has connections to none other than new Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) head and prolific privatisation proponent Alan Milburn.

A month ahead of the next reading of this in parliament, the group’s connections should send alarm bells ringing. Crucially, it raises the very real possibility that the well-funded organisation could sway ministers at the eleventh hour.

Assisted dying bill: moving fast

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private members ‘Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bills [HL]’ would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to seek medical assistance to end their own life.

On the 16 October, the House of Commons hosted its first reading of this. Now, it’s set to hold its second reading on the 29 November.

As the Canary previously reported, Starmer had said he was prepared to fast-track the bill. He has made no secret of the fact that he personally supports it.

Despite this, he has also indicated the government will not whip its MPs on this. What’s more, while Starmer backs it, there’s a notable split in his cabinet on this. Having previously voted for it in 2015, health secretary Wes Streeting has now confirmed he will vote against the bill.

Even so, parliament passing the bill through to the next stage is a very real prospect. This is not least because influential groups calling for MPs to implement it in law have been running a comprehensive campaign to engage parliamentarians. Dignity in Dying, and its sister nonprofit Compassion in Dying are the key organisations in question.

And crucially, the group appears to have direct lines to the ear of government.

Dignity in Dying’s new chair and pal with PM Former Labour MP for Sheffield Central Paul Blomfield is a glaring case and point of this. According to Politico, Blomfield backs assisted dying for personal familial reasons. His dad took his own life aged 87 after a terminal lung cancer diagnosis, so has:

spoken about how a more humane system could have given his family more time together.

He was previously a vice chair to the Choice at the End of Life APPG between 2015 until March 2024. Who’s the secretariat – in other words, ultimately runs the APPG? Naturally, that would be Dignity in Dying.

Fresh after Labour swept into power, Dignity in Dying appointed him a director and chair of the board. In fact, it did so quite literally days after the election, on the 10 July. Blomfield didn’t stand at the election, so has now shifted his focus to the new role.

Blomfield’s bio on its website also isn’t shy about the fact that he worked alongside Starmer. This was as shadow Brexit minister between 2016 and 2020.

That is, not long after Blomfield took up his new role as a director for Dignity in Dying, the prime minister – who he knows personally – decided to fast-track Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill.

As Politico has pointed out, Starmer has been a long-time supporter of assisted dying. He voted for it the last time it was presented to parliament in 2015. What’s more, the outlet has highlighted how in his role as Chief Prosecutor and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, he had:

overseen around 80 assisted dying cases in that role — and decided no prosecution should be brought in 79 of them.

So it’s perhaps also little wonder he has vocally come out in support of passing the new law on this. However Blomfield’s connection shows how Dignity in Dying has sought to take its influence right to the heart of government.

Blair-era advisor a trustee for Compassion in Dying

Then, there’s Jo Gibbons. Gibbons has been a trustee for Compassion in Dying since 2016, and was previously a board member for Dignity in Dying between 2015 and 2021. However it’s Gibbon’s roles before that, which are notable in this. For one, Gibbons was a press officer for the Labour Party in the early Blair years.

Then, she was SpAd to House of Lords peer Margaret Ann Jay for three years from 1998. Jay has been a staunch proponent of assisted dying. She has supported multiple bills, and was a vice chair to the Choice at the End of Life APPG between 2015 and 2019.

Gibbons has held various other key roles with the Labour Party, including as director of corporate affairs for Tony Blair. Notably, her Compassion in Dying bio boasts that she:

worked as a senior adviser for Tony Blair in Downing Street

But it’s her role as SpAd for another notorious Blair-era minister that really stands out. For a year from 2004, she was a general election coordinator for none other than former health secretary Alan Milburn. Of course, that would be the same Alan Milburn that Wes Streeting has now officially drafted into his ranks as a lead non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

In December, despite the fact Milburn had no formal role within the Labour Party at the time, the Guardian’s Observer published an article airing his support for assisted dying, telling the outlet:

When people today expect to have control over so many aspects of their lives, it feels paradoxical that we are denied the same about how we want to die. It’s perhaps the most important decision any of us can make. To deny that choice feels increasingly anachronistic. The time has come for a free vote in parliament on the issue.

After standing down at the 2010 election, Milburn joined neoliberal think tank Demos. That just so happened to be right around the time it hosted the launch for the lord Falconer-led Commission on Assisted Dying.

The Bernard Lewis Family Trust also funnelled over £80,000 to the think tank between 2010 and 2012. And that was the period in which the commission put together its report advocating for assisted dying.

Coincidence? Quite likely not – as this seems to be the only period the trust donated to Demos. This is, as Canary previously highlighted, the philanthropic fund of the extremely wealthy Lewis Family. They’re known best as owners of the River Island clothing chain, but have sprawling interests across a range of investments.

PR and lobbyist companies behind the campaign Outside Gibbon’s role as a trustee for Compassion in Dying, she has put her political experience and connections to good use in PR and marketing. She had a previous stint with infamous fossil fuel-shill Edelman, and was head of health industries marketing for PwC. The latter of these Milburn is also an advisor for. But it’s her own lobbying and consultancy companies that should make people sit up and take notice even more.

One is Blackstock Communications, which Gibbons and fellow former Labour staffer Deb Hermer launched in 2022. The other is the Story Network, which Gibbons co-founded with former Labour councillor Alex Bigham, and Ed Owen – previous adviser to Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw in Blair’s government. All three have significant PR experience – and the DHSC even seconded Bigham to be head of NHS Test and Trace communications in 2021. On his LinkedIn, Bigham posted his attendance at Labour’s recent conference in Liverpool.

Neither firm has joined the UK’s lobbyist register, so we don’t have direct lists of the companies and organisations they’ve lobbied for, or when they’ve done this. However, both have Dignity in Dying’s logo emblazoned on their webpages as previous clients.

Given Bigham’s previous Test and Trace role, it’s also perhaps no surprise the Story Network lists the DHSC amongst these too. The point is, in multiple capacities, Gibbons has intimate connections to the Labour Party government, and perhaps most significantly, the DHSC in particular.

Interestingly too, Blackstock has worked for the Labour Party itself as well. More specifically, it states that it has used:

communications skills for delivering culture change to drive out antisemitism.

It seems plausible then that Blackstock has been part of the Labour right’s purge of left-wing MPs through antisemitism smears.

The icing on the cake though is probably that Blackstock Communications has testimonials for Gibbons splashed across its site. Unsurprisingly perhaps, one is from Dignity in Dying director Sarah Wootton. The other? It’s glowing praise from Alan Milburn.

But for definitive proof the pair are, at minimum, still in touch – look no further than the who’s who of the Labour right’s little piss up in a brewery on Chancery Lane.

In May 2022, all the Tony Blair top brass gathered there for 25 year anniversary celebrations of the 1997 election. Milburn was there, of course, as was Streeting, and now science and tech sec Peter Kyle. Crucially, listed among a handful of organisers Politico noted at the event was Jo Gibbons. We at least know then that the two have rubbed shoulders in recent years – and potentially Streeting too.

A wake up call over assisted dying

The point is, one of the most prominent campaign groups pushing for assisted dying is well connected to the party in government. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has it all sewn up. However, it does show the enormous access to the key levers of power the group wields. Over the next month, Dignity in Dying will invariably utilise these connections.

So, this needs to be a wake up call. Without concerted action – there’s the very real possibility MPs could get behind the bill. And if that happens, it could open the dangerous floodgates to legalised assisted suicide that will put chronically ill and disabled people’s lives at risk even more than they already are.