Holding the Line Against Tyranny and Anarchy (Constitution Committee Report)

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Moraes, and I join other noble Lords in paying tribute to our much-loved noble friend, the late Lord Mackay of Clashfern. I also congratulate my noble friend Lord Strathclyde on the powerful call to action that he and his committee have produced in this report.

Naturally I agree with my former tutor and noble friend Lord Norton of Louth that this is a major report, not just in terms of its 93 pages and almost 30 recommendations but in its significance. It does, as noble Lords and my noble friend have said, deserve a wide audience. In the few minutes allocated, I will focus on the conclusions and recommendations that relate to a section of society all too often regarded as insignificant. This is absolutely not a criticism of the report, but it underlines my point because, as far as I can see, disabled people did not figure in it at all. I am not suggesting that there should be some tokenistic checklist of protected characteristic groups who must always be mentioned, regardless of the subject matter. Rather, I would suggest that many disabled people’s life experiences would actually support some of the report’s observations, conclusions and recommendations.

I will focus my remarks on paragraphs 26, 49 and 50 in particular. With regards to paragraph 26 and the role everyone has to play in upholding the rule of law and the importance of our understanding

“what a society that displays the rule of law looks like in practice”,

paragraph 49 hits the nail on the head. It states that it is about the value system that underpins the rule of law. It is surely sadly right that, as the report argues, if the core values of equality, fairness and justice

“are not present (or are perceived not to be present) in our society, then the rule of law … is liable to be degraded and to break down”.

I give one pertinent example of a wheelchair user, dressed in a suit and tie, who was wheeling across Parliament Square only last month. Three teenage lads passed by; each laughed at him in turn, and one was heard to say to the other two, “Have you seen that video?”—shocking perhaps, but not unusual for this individual and, I would suggest, for many disabled people whose disability makes them look different. What was clear in that moment was that these young people had absolutely no concept of the values of respect, equality and fairness that inform the rule of law culture. Indeed, such concepts might just as well have been so abstract as to be completely alien to their thinking.

That is how far we have regressed as a society in the 31 years since your Lordships’ House passed the Disability Discrimination Act. That is how much the rule of law culture has been degraded, undoubtedly aided by the subversive subculture of ridicule and hatred spawned by social media, whose role in misinformation is highlighted in paragraph 117. Social media seemingly grants a licence to laugh at and, in some cases, to dehumanise other human beings on account of their difference. Being a Peer of the realm affords no protection from prejudice. I know because I was the wheelchair user being laughed at.

I also relate, as someone with a mobility impairment, to paragraph 50 and how confidence in the rule of law is challenged by perceptions of disrespect for the law, particularly when this is seen within those institutions that play a role in upholding the rule of law, such as law enforcement. I know I am not the only Member of your Lordships’ House who must wonder why on earth the police, for whom I have the greatest respect, are failing to enforce the law with regard to cyclists going through red lights and cycling on pavements, both of which pose an enormous risk to disabled people and non-disabled people and both of which are illegal. It would only take an inexpensive, well-publicised social media campaign, backed up with real penalties, rather than just warnings, being awarded to law-breaking cyclists, including those using e-bikes, for the public to get the message: this is the rule of law on the roads, enforced by those with responsibility to uphold it—the police. You have absolutely nothing to fear as long as you do not break it.

In conclusion, the judiciary is quite rightly at the apex of society; it deserves our respect. But surely an equally crucial indicator of how much the rule of law is respected in practice is the degree to which it, and the culture and value system underpinning it, are upheld in situations affecting the most vulnerable members of society, not those with the most power. The report may not mention disabled people specifically, but that does not make its conclusions and recommendations any less relevant or important. I thank the Constitution Committee for its work and hope very much that the Minister will show in her reply that the Government are determined to respond positively in practice.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Committee stage
Friday 13th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Russell of Liverpool) (CB)]

Before anybody else intervenes, I should have said at the beginning of this group of amendments that the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, and the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, will be taking part remotely. I apologise to both of them for forgetting that at the beginning. The noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is taking part remotely and I invite him to speak.

[Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, Amendments 162, 194 and 858 are in my name, and I should make clear that I do not intend to move them. Amendment 162 proposes that, where a person has Down syndrome or a learning disability, a registered medical practitioner must not initiate, suggest or raise the matter of assisted dying with that person. This is consistent with two findings of a new poll by Whitestone Insight, to which my noble friend Lord Harper referred in the previous group. It shows, first, that 84% of people believe that assisted dying should be initiated only by the patient, and that figure rises to 91% among people aged over 75. It also shows that 86% of people support additional safeguards for people with Down syndrome, autism and learning disabilities.

Ken Ross of the National Down Syndrome Policy Group told the Select Committee on the Bill that

“those with learning disabilities may place great weight on a doctor’s suggestion and be unduly influenced towards choosing an assisted death”.

He added:

“The acquiescence bias risk from people with Down syndrome is extraordinary”.


We have talked extensively about the huge risks of coercion caused by this poorly drafted and unsafe Bill. As our forensic scrutiny has highlighted, these cannot be overstated for some of the most vulnerable members of our society, including people with Down syndrome or learning disabilities.

The noble and learned Lord has complained about the number of amendments that have been tabled, but, bizarrely, he did so without any acknowledgement that this reflects the very poor state of this unsafe Bill when it came to your Lordships’ House. It is regrettable that the noble and learned Lord, in his consistently dismissive responses, is sabotaging noble Lords’ carefully considered and reasonable attempts to mitigate the worst effects of his badly drafted Bill. That is the purpose of Amendment 162 and its consequential Amendments 858 and 194, none of which I would have needed to table if the Bill were safe. Amendments 194 and 200A, in the name of my noble friend Lady Maclean of Redditch, who cannot be present today, would require the Secretary of State, by regulations, to make provision about the training, qualifications and experience that a registered medical practitioner must have if they are to exercise their professional judgment under Sections 2 and 3.

At the moment, despite the sensitivity of these conversations, not least with people who, because of Down syndrome, are predisposed to agree with what they are told and are unable to compute the gravity or finality of the choice of an assisted death, and the fact that a conversation is the first step on the pathway to end that person’s life with lethal drugs—despite all this, there are no minimum requirements for training or experience. In such a situation, where the Bill grants every doctor legal protection if they exercise their professional judgment to discuss assisted death with a person, is it not essential that there are minimum requirements to qualify for this protection?

Surely, the question is how they could not need minimum training or experience to deal with such delicate and sensitive situations, especially those involving people with Down syndrome and learning disabilities? I cannot understand how anyone could think that they do not, unless there is another agenda at play that prioritises, over everything else, making access to an assisted death as easy as possible, and thus unencumbered by safeguards such as those my amendments would provide, in particular to those with Down syndrome or learning disabilities, because these disabilities would place them in an invidiously vulnerable situation

Mr Ross told the Select Committee that such training should be mandatory. He also cited a shocking statistic which underlines the point made earlier by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, about the extent of existing discriminatory outcomes in evidence of health inequalities, which was revised only two months ago in a corrected version of the 2025 LeDeR report. The statistic is that just over 40% of people with learning disabilities die from avoidable causes—and that is now, without the Bill. We may consider how much worse the Bill would make that deeply unsettling statistic.

Mr Ross also told the Select Committee:

“There is a real fear among the people with Down syndrome I have spoken to that this Bill will further target their lives”.


Is the noble and learned Lord really going to ignore their fear? I have to say, that is not the Labour Party that I, and many other disabled people, know and respect.

While dismissing the case I made in Committee on 6 February relating to people with congenital lifelong conditions such as mine, the noble and learned Lord expressed sympathy and referred to my “fate”—which is a bit ominous, although perhaps inadvertently accurate in the context of this Bill. I dare say I should be grateful for such touching thoughtfulness, although I am not sure his sympathy would afford either me or, in relation to these amendments, a person with Down syndrome or a learning disability any protection from the deadly provisions of this deeply flawed Bill.

In closing, I readily acknowledge that translating warm words of sympathy into effective safeguards might defeat even the most able of advocates; perhaps, therefore, I could offer a more practical solution in the form of these amendments. I hope the noble and learned Lord will accept them.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Committee stage
Friday 9th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is taking part remotely. I invite him to speak.

[Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 120 and the amendments consequential to it. I should explain at the outset that my remarks incorporate the concerns of my noble friend Lord Farmer, who regrets that he is unable to be here. We are both worried, as I know are many other noble Lords, about current capacity and other pressures on the family courts. We are particularly concerned that these amendments would increase capacity pressures still further by placing decision-making and sign-off for applications for assisted dying orders into the Family Division of the High Court.

The noble Lord, Lord Carlile, mentioned safety. Notwithstanding his reference to 40-plus circuit judges and a cohort of recorders, I fear that what is before us is a recipe for overwhelming a system that already shows grave signs of being overloaded. Noble Lords will know that, for some considerable time, my noble friend Lord Farmer has been pressing this and previous Governments to cite early legal advice and support in family hubs when families separate, to ease pressure precisely because of existing capacity issues.

Moreover, the National Audit Office recently said of the family justice system:

“The government … does not have an overall assessment of the main drivers of delays or the capacity required to manage the system efficiently and reduce delay. MoJ, DfE and others have carried out several reviews … to identify causes of delay in family justice, identifying more than 25 different contributing factors … but most of the reviews could not quantify the scale and impact of each issue on overall performance, or the resources required to deal with these causes efficiently, due to data limitations”.

Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shinkwin (Con)]

My Lords, I have listened with care and respect to the passionate arguments expressed on both sides. My contribution to this crucial debate stems from my personal experience of having been unable to talk, swallow or even breathe independently following lifesaving neurosurgery. My neurosurgeon would not give me odds even on survival, never mind recovery.

To say that I felt vulnerable would be an understatement. However, the one thing that did not compound my pain, anguish and complete loss of autonomy was the fear that the law presumed to pose the question of whether my life was worth living. That is the fear that has been so powerfully articulated by my noble friend Lady Fraser, the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Campbell of Surbiton and Lady Grey-Thompson.

Sadly, nothing that I have heard today comes close to addressing that fear. In fact, I know that had the Bill been law, it would have compounded my acute sense of vulnerability. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have felt like a burden. If I had known then what we know now about the highly relevant assisted dying developments in Canada, I would have felt that a price had been placed on my head.

It is a simple fact that keeping those of us with severe disabilities alive costs money—lots of it. Rebuilding this broken body in which I live has cost an awful lot of money.

The British Islamic Medical Association rightly states that

“when it comes to assisted dying, there are no opportunities to rectify well-intentioned mistakes or benefit from hindsight.”

Let us not make a very well-intentioned mistake. Instead, let us protect those in vulnerable situations, such as I found myself in, by opposing the Bill.