Andy Burnham has said the assisted dying debate needs to wait until palliative care and social care are fixed, as he set out his path to resolving one of the most intractable problems in British politics. “That is the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care. When Burnham was previously an MP, he abstained from a 2015 vote on another bill to legalise assisted dying because of concerns over safeguards and people feeling under pressure. But Burnham’s caution about returning to the issue of assisted dying has cheered Labour MPs who opposed the bill. View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham said he wanted a ‘factual debate’ without ‘screaming headlines’ about ways to reform social care.