Wes Streeting is a very clever man. As one of the government’s best communicators, the health secretary knows that when he speaks, people tend to listen. So when he decided to make an intervention on fellow Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill this week,

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is facing pushback from senior Labour figures over his repeated strident interventions against a move to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. MPs will have their say on the issue later this month – in what is known as a free vote,

Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by warning that the NHS could not afford assisted dying without making cuts elsewhere, a Labour grandee has said. Harriet Harman, a former interim Labour leader, criticised the Health Secretary for wading into the debate when Cabinet ministers were told to remain neutral.

The Health Secretary has said he is against a change in the law to allow terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their lives.

The Labour MP leading the campaign to legalise assisted dying has criticised Wes Streeting for “very vocally” opposing the move. Kim Leadbeater said the Health Secretary’s repeated public comments against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill were “quite disappointing and quite upsetting”.

Implementing a new assisted dying law would come at the expense of other NHS services, the health secretary has suggested. Wes Streeting, who once supported assisted dying, plans to vote against the new Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill later this month,