Assisted dying Scotland: Sir Keir Starmer backs call for change in law as Dame Esther Rantzen champions move

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has backed calls for a change in the law on assisted dying.

The cause has been championed by Dame Esther Rantzen, who has called for politicians to grapple with the issue for the first time since 2015.

The 83-year-old Childline founder and broadcaster has stage four lung cancer and earlier this week said she has joined the assisted dying clinic Dignitas.

The Labour leader, who backed a change in the law the last time the issue was voted on in the Commons in 2015, acknowledged it would have to be addressed carefully.

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

"On the question of assisted dying, there are obviously strong views both ways on this, which I respect," he said. "And that's why traditionally, this has always been dealt with with a private member's bill and a free vote and that seems appropriate to me.

"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."

UK health secretary Victoria Atkins said the issue was always treated as a "matter of conscience", with MPs given a free vote.

Dame Esther said this week: "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."

Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

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.

Mr McArthur said: "Dame Esther's timely intervention has helped politicians up and down the UK recognise the strength of support that there is for offering terminally ill people the choice of a good death on their own terms. It’s long past time for political action on this issue to catch up with where the public mood has been for some time.

"The proposals I am setting out deliver a safe, compassionate, and robustly safeguarded Bill that will legalise assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults while sitting alongside high-quality end-of-life care.

"In the new year, I will be publishing a formal Bill and MSPs will then have a free vote on whether to back my plans. I hope that this can serve as a model for the rest of the UK and that MPs in Westminster will soon be able to vote on their own legislation."