FOCUS on improving care for disabled people, not introducing assisted dying, the public have urged MPs as the controversial legislation returns to the Commons tomorrow.

Polling for campaigning organisation Not Dead Yet showed that two-thirds of people said access to care, not assisted dying, should be the priority — a figure that rises to 72 per cent among disabled people themselves.

The Bill, promoted by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, was approved in principle by MPs in a vote earlier this year and has since been scrutinised by a Commons committee.

Ms Leadbeater rejected several amendments which would have strengthened safeguards around the proposal to allow assisted dying in certain circumstances.

There are particular concerns over disabled people feeling coerced into opting for assisted death.  

In the poll, 63 per cent agreed with fears that some disabled people may feel a sense of responsibility to access an assisted death if they feel they are a burden on family or society, with only 16 per cent disagreeing. 

Fifty-seven per cent agree that disabled people who struggle to access the support they need, given the current state of the NHS and social care funding, may be more likely to seek assisted suicide instead.

And 59 per cent of respondents feared that disabled people living in poverty – as around one-third do – with benefits being cut might be likely to seek assisted dying.

Former Equality and Human Rights Commission lead and Not Dead Yet UK spokesman Mike Smith said: “Disabled people have been sounding the alarm bells about assisted suicide and the Bill for some time, but politicians, and particularly those working at the committee stage of the Bill, didn’t want to listen. 

“Now they need to hear that a significant majority of the UK population agree disabled people’s lives will be threatened if this legislation is passed.

“There is a real concern that assisted suicide will become the de facto primary option because existing infrastructure can’t cope with the pressures on it. 

“Decent palliative care and social care, free at the point of delivery like NHS treatment, have to come first. 

“Otherwise, there will be untold early deaths because some people feel they have no meaningful choice. Is that really the kind of society we want to create?”

Not Dead Yet UK is a national organisation run by disabled people that opposes the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Disabled people’s organisations, including Disability Rights UK and Disabled People Against Cuts, have come out strongly against the Bill.