𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Dame Esther Rantzen has said she is “deeply disappointed” after Andy Burnham essentially halted a Bill to legalise assisted dying. The Prime Minister said he believes palliative and social care needs to be fixed before assisted dying is considered in the UK, but Dame Esther urged him to rethink.

In a heartfelt plea, the former TV presenter — who has terminal lung cancer and become a leading campaigner for assisted dying — said she wishes the PM has “the humanity to allow us terminally ill adults the dignity of choice”. She told the Express: “Tragically, even the best palliative care in the world cannot guarantee the pain free dignified death we all hope for. So please, Prime Minister, allow the public and the MPs the dignity of choice they have asked for, and at long last pass the new law so that in future we, at the most vulnerable time in our lives can ask for assistance not to shorten our life, but to shorten our death.”

The Prime Minister, who has previously indicated he had changed his view over the years to be in support of the principle of assisted dying, on Wednesday said it is “very challenging” to debate the issue amid gaps in the current offer of care at the end of life.

The Bill on legalising assisted dying is supposed to be debated by MPs when Parliament returns after its summer recess.

Mr Burnham said: “I take the view that that debate – and I don’t say that there shouldn’t be a debate at some point about those issues – personally, I think there’s something that needs to happen first.

“That is the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care.

“I think it is very challenging to introduce that wider debate in a context of people not receiving that care and having the peace of mind about that care.

“That’s the way I kind of see this, and that’s the position that I will stick to.”

Following his comments, Mr Burnham was urged to meet terminally ill assisted dying campaigners to hear their stories.

Sophie Blake, a 53-year-old mother who is terminally ill, warned dying people “don’t have time for these endless excuses and delays”.

“I ask you to please meet us, terminally ill, mentally competent adults, the only people eligible for this Bill, alongside bereaved families, to hear our stories, and then tell us that we still do not deserve choice,” she said.

Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP who reintroduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament for debate in September, said improving end-of-life care and legalising assisted dying “must go hand in hand”.

Sarah Wooton, chief executive of the Dignity in Dying campaign group, added: “The Prime Minister is right to highlight that too many people are being let down by our health and care systems.

“So too are dying people, under a ban on assisted dying that both the public and MPs agree is forcing people to endure unimaginable suffering as they die, or take drastic actions at home and abroad with no upfront safeguards.

“Improving health and social care is essential, but will not remove the need for choice at the end of life.”

The new Bill was brought forward after the previous one was passed by MPs but then blocked by the House of Lords.

Mr Burnham’s comments on Wednesday signal a change in position from his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, who voted in favour of the earlier Bill by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater in 2024.

When he was previously an MP, Mr Burnham abstained from a 2015 vote on another Bill to legalise assisted dying because of concerns over safeguards and people feeling under pressure.

But he said he had “family experience in the nine years since that has changed my view”.

He said: “I think we do allow people to suffer and families to suffer too much.”

He caveated his support as being for the principle of assisted dying and insisted he would want a requirement before any new law was implemented that hospices would be “properly funded and sorted out”.

He has also, however, spoken of his Catholic background and how “Catholic social teaching underpins my politics”, even though he is “not particularly religious”.

The Catholic Church is staunchly opposed to assisted dying legislation.

The Express has pushed for change in the law through its Give Us Our Last Rights campaign.