Sir Keir Starmer ‘pleased’ to keep promise to Esther Rantzen on assisted dying vote

Sir Keir Starmer said he is pleased he could keep his vow to Dame Esther Rantzen to make time for a debate and vote on assisted dying as a Bill is set to come before Parliament this month.

The broadcaster, who is terminally ill and has been outspoken in her calls for change, said she was not expecting to have a chance to witness such a debate in her lifetime and that the news has filled her with hope.

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Dame Esther had a telephone conversation with Sir Keir earlier this year – before he became Prime Minister – in which he pledged his commitment on the issue.

On Thursday, it was announced that Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater will introduce a private member’s bill on assisted dying after topping a ballot, which gives her priority on a Friday sitting.

Dame Esther Rantzen. Credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA WireDame Esther Rantzen. Credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire
Dame Esther Rantzen. Credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

It is expected to be formally introduced on October 16, with a debate and initial vote on the matter possible within weeks.

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It will be the first time the topic has been debated in the House of Commons since 2015, when an assisted dying Bill was defeated.

Ms Leadbeater said she hoped for “honest, compassionate and respectful debate” on her Bill, which would establish in law the right for terminally ill eligible adults to have choice at the end of life to shorten their deaths and ensure stronger protections for them and their loved ones after.

Speaking yesterday, Sir Keir said: “I’m very pleased that I’m able, as it were, to make good on the promise I made to Esther Rantzen.

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“The Government will be neutral on this as you know, but I did make that commitment to a free vote and I am sticking to that commitment.”

Dame Esther, who revealed in December that she has joined the Swiss Dignitas clinic, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The fact that I may actually still be here to witness a debate in Parliament on this crucial life and death issue is not what I expected at all.

“It fills me with hope but it also fills me with fear.”

MPs debating and eventually voting on a Bill have a “heavy responsibility”, Ms Leadbeater acknowledged, but she added that doing nothing would “leave too many people as they come to the end of their life continuing to suffer in often unbearable pain and fear of what is to come, denied the choice they deserve”.

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She has pledged to consult widely about the details of her Bill, and sought to assure the public that it will not – as some campaigners have argued – pressure people to have an assisted death against their will.

She added: “It will not undermine calls for improvements to palliative care.

“Nor will it conflict with the rights of people with disabilities to be treated equally and have the respect and support they are absolutely right to campaign for in order to live fulfilling lives.

“I support these causes just as passionately.”

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Cabinet Secretary Simon Case wrote to ministers to state that the Government will “remain neutral on the passage of the Bill and on the matter of assisted dying”.

Sir Keir has previously said he is “personally in favour of changing the law” and supported a change the last time the issue was voted on in the Commons nine years ago.