Keir Starmer said his position on the highly sensitive issue of assisted dying ‘is long-standing and well-known’ after he voted in favour of changing the law last year
Keir Starmer has suggested he backs a bid to change the law on assisted dying as MPs prepare to cast their final vote.
Tensions have been mounting in Parliament over the landmark bill, as more than 50 Labour MPs urged Commons Leader Lucy Powell at the weekend to intervene to delay the crucial third reading vote to allow for more scrutiny.
MPs voted by 330 to 275 in favour of legalising assisted dying in November – but it is unclear whether some MPs will switch sides when they vote on the bill in full. The Prime Minister said his position on the highly sensitive issue “is long-standing and well-known” but he stressed it was a matter for individual MPs as the government remains neutral.
At November’s historic ‘yes’ vote, when a majority of 55 supported the principle of assisted dying in England and Wales, Mr Starmer voted in favour. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has since gone through line-by-line scrutiny in tense debates in the Commons chamber.
READ MORE: Major changes to assisted dying plan as tense debate sees MP slam ‘murder’ claim
Spearheaded by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the Bill proposes to allow terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death.
It is expected MPs will hold a key vote on Friday which could either see the legislation progress to the House of Lords, or fall.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Starmer said: “It is a matter for individual parliamentarians, which is why I’ve not waded in with a view on this publicly, and I’m not going to now, it’s coming to a conclusion.
“There has been a lot of time discussing it, both in Parliament and beyond Parliament, and quite right too it’s a really serious issue. My own position is long-standing and well-known in relation to it, based on my experience when I was chief prosecutor for five years, where I oversaw every case that was investigated.”
His comments came as the ex-Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged MPs to reject the Bill, saying it had “fundamental flaws”.
Mr Brown said: “It has become clear that whatever views people hold on the principle, passing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill into law would privilege the legal right to assisted dying without guaranteeing anything approaching an equivalent right to high-quality palliative care for those close to death.”
But the daughter of terminally ill broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen said England and Wales must “catch up with the rest of the world” in changing the law. Rebecca Wilcox told Sky News: “We need to show that we are an empathetic country that appreciates choice at the end of your life.”
She added: “It’s a Bill for the terminally ill. It’s a Bill for adults, and in every jurisdiction where they’ve had a similar Bill with such strict safeguards it is not extended to anybody else. It has not widened the scope of it. The slippery slope doesn’t exist.
“So what we have here, what Kim Leadbeater has brought forward and has pushed through Parliament so gracefully and so carefully and empathetically, is a really safe, clever piece of law that will stop the cruel status quo that exists at the moment where nobody knows what they can do, where people are dying in agony every single day.”
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