It was back in March that Keir Starmer first promised to hold a vote on legalising assisted dying. “I’m personally in favour of changing the law, I think we need time, we will make that commitment,” he told the terminally ill TV presenter Esther Rantzen (in a conversation filmed by ITV News). “Delay just prolongs the agony,” Starmer said, indicating that a vote could come early in the next parliament.
Yet the subject was almost entirely absent from the general election. This was partly because Labour made no reference to the issue in its manifesto – a conscious decision by the party to avoid an awkward debate (the Conservatives promised to “respect the will of parliament” on assisted dying; the Liberal Democrats pledged to hold a free vote). But MPs now face perhaps the most consequential decision they will make in this parliament.
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