Assisted dying vote: emotional campaigner says 'if this had been in December my husband would still be alive'

MPs voted to send the legislation to the Lords with a narrow majority of just 23.

Outside Parliament, campaigners in favour wept, jumped and hugged as the news filtered through.

Dame Prue Leith, Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, and the broadcaster, Jonathan Dimbleby, were among the high-profile figures supporting the Bill to change the law in England and Wales.

Dame Prue said she was “both nervous and confident” about the outcome.

“It’s so moving to see all these people with placards of people they’ve lost or people who are dying of cancer,” she said.

“It’s hard not to cry because I think they have done such a good job.”

Mr Dimbleby said he believed the Bill would be “transformative”.

He added: “What it will mean is millions of people will be able to say to themselves, ‘If I’m terminally ill, I will be able to choose, assuming I am of sound mind and I am not being coerced, to say ‘Yes, I want to be assisted – I have dignity in death’.”

Rebecca Wilcox, the daughter of Dame Esther, said: “It couldn’t be a kinder, more compassionate Bill that respects choice at the end of life, that respects kindness and empathy and gives us all an option when other options, every other option, has been taken away, and it would just be the perfect tool for a palliative care doctor to have in their med bag.”

North Yorkshire’s Louise Shackleton, who has been campaigning to change the law, said it was a day of “mixed emotions”.

The 58-year-old told The Yorkshire Post she accompanied her husband Antony, who was suffering with debilitating motor neurone disease, to Dignitas days after MPs voted in favour at second reading last year.

North Yorkshire Police have since opened an investigation.

“On his last night, we were having a lovely meal and he started to speak about it,” Mrs Shackleton said.

“He said: ‘I want you to promise me one thing, can you tell people my story.’”

Speaking through tears outside Parliament, Mrs Shackleton explained: “I’ve had very mixed emotions.

“It’s absolutely amazing for people of England and Wales, that you will now have the choice.

“On the other side, if this had been here in December my husband would still be alive and he would be here with me and the boys, and his grandchildren.

“This will now stop other people having to make that journey that my husband made.

“I’m elated but sad at the same time.”

Mrs Shackleton added that she hopes the bill means more focus and funding towards palliative care.

Hospice UK described the vote as representing a “seismic change for end-of-life care in England and Wales” and warned it adds to the “urgency to improve palliative care”.

Its chief executive Toby Porter said: “Already, too many people don’t get the care they need at the end of their lives.

“Today’s decision brings the urgency to improve palliative care into even sharper focus, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society.

“Should the bill become law, the Government has four years to bring about a transformation in palliative and end of life care.”