Sir Keir Starmer has backed calls to legalise assisted dying – signalling that a Labour government could support a new vote in parliament.
The Labour leader said there were “grounds for changing the law” to let people who want to end their lives be given help under clinical controls.
Dame Esther Rantzen has called for a Commons vote on assisted dying, after revealing that she has registered with the Dignitas clinic.
The Childline founder and broadcaster, 83, has stage four lung cancer and earlier this week said she has joined the assisted dying facility in Switzerland.
Sir Keir – who backed a change in the law when ending the ban was defeated in the Commons in 2015 – said on Thursday it deserved careful attention.
“On the question of assisted dying, there are obviously strong views both ways on this, which I respect,” Sir Keir told reporters during his pre-Christmas visit to British troops in Estonia.
“And that’s why traditionally, this has always been dealt with a private member’s bill and a free vote and that seems appropriate to me,” he said.
He added: “I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law, we have to be careful – but it would have to be, I think, a free vote on an issue where there are such divided and strong views.”
Keir Starmer is in Estonia to visit British troops
Cabinet minister Mel Stride this week suggested he would support another free vote in parliament on legalising assisted dying.
A bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK under strict controls was defeated, 330 votes to 118, in 2015. It is still banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
Mr Stride said he “wouldn’t be adverse” to a fresh debate and vote in the Commons. The work and pensions secretary said he would want to take a “fresh look at it and come to a decision”.
But he made clear that Rishi Sunak’s government was not bringing forward a fresh bill.
Fellow cabinet minister Michael Gove, when asked about Dame Esther’s case, told reporters: “I’m not yet persuaded of the case for assisted dying – but I do think that it’s appropriate for the Commons to revisit this.”
Asked about the issue on Thursday, health secretary Victoria Atkins said the issue was always treated as a “matter of conscience”, with MPs given a free vote.
She initially declined to say whether she thought it was time for another, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today: “As health secretary, I think actually, it’s right that I don’t express an opinion on this.” But she added: “I think that if there was a will in parliament, it will happen.”
Esther Rantzen has revealed she is considering assisted dying in Switzerland
Dame Esther told BBC Radio 4 that she believed more people would want to choose the manner of their death if they were allowed – saying she would organise a free vote if she were PM.
She also told the PA news agency: “I would say to parliamentarians: ‘Think of the people you love in your own life, maybe who are older, maybe who are unwell, and think how you would wish them to spend their last days and weeks’.
“It is agonising to watch someone you love suffer. Nobody wants that for their family. And we live in a day and age when it’s perfectly possible to offer people a gentle, peaceful death.”
Senior Tory Kit Malthouse, former minister at the Home Office, said he had been “working the tea rooms” in favour of a new vote.
The co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on end-of-life choice said that “the sentiment in parliament has moved significantly since 2015”.
In Scotland, it is not a specific criminal offence but assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to murder or other charges. Legislation is being put forward by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, with the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill due to come before Holyrood next year.
The health and social care committee is due to publish its report into assisted dying and assisted suicide in England and Wales, having launched an inquiry in December 2022 to examine different perspectives in the debate.
