Starmer backs change in law on assisted dying

Labour leader’s comments come amid growing calls for reform

Keir Starmer has backed a change in the law on assisted dying as he indicated MPs could vote on the issue if he becomes prime minister.

The Labour leader said he was an “advocate” for reform and warned the current law was not working.

Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen, who is suffering from stage four lung cancer, sparked a fresh debate on the issue last month when she revealed she had joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

Sir Keir said: “I am an advocate of a change to the law. Obviously that change has to be very carefully crafted.”

He added: “It shouldn’t really be for the prosecutor to try and make the law work when it doesn’t really. It’d be better for parliament to actually change the law.”

He also said the “best route” was probably through a private member’s bill, brought by a backbench MP.

He added: “And yes, I would be open to making time for that (as prime minister).”

Asked if he wold vote to change the law, Sir Keir said he would “subject to it being the right change”.

He also backed calls for a “free vote”, meaning MPs would not be whipped along party lines and would instead vote with their consciences.

A similar bill was used to bring in abortion in the 1960s.

Earlier this week a former Labour minister called on the party’s leader to hold a vote if he becomes prime minister.

Dame Joan Ruddock urged action as she revealed she came close to smothering her husband with a pillow as he died an agonising death from cancer.

She said that she had gone so far as to get “the pillow ready” and anticipated a “struggle”.

The former head of CND also said she had cursed herself for not using his liquid morphine while he was still able to swallow it.

She is now appealing for assisted dying to be made legal.

She told the Independent: Dame Joan said: “There should be a vote in the Commons and it should be a free vote. Around 80 per cent of people support assisted dying. MPs should take note of that. That is what the country wants and they should do what the country wants.”

She added: “I think there will be a vote in the Commons before Keir becomes PM. But if there is not one before the general election then certainly I would urge Keir Starmer to allow ... a free vote on the issue.”