SCOTTISH Labour MSPs will be given a free vote on assisted dying legislation at Holyrood after Keir Starmer opposed Anas Sarwar’s stance on the issue.
On Wednesday, the UK Labour leader made a commitment to broadcaster and campaigner Esther Rantzen to legalise assisted dying in the first term of a government he leads.
“I’m personally in favour of changing the law," Starmer told Rantzen. “I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment. Esther, I can give you that commitment right now.”
Rantzen has spoken about considering the option of assisted dying if her ongoing lung cancer treatment is not a success, and Starmer told ITV he would "definitely" look to change the law in the first term of a new parliament.
However, Sarwar had previously opposed the policy.
READ MORE: Isle of Man on path to be first in UK to legalise assisted dying
Talking specifically about LibDem MSP Liam McArthur’s proposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Sarwar told The Scotsman in 2023: “I'm yet to be persuaded on the legislation.
“I don't instinctively support [it].”
He suggested that the debate around assisted dying would be a free vote for Labour MSPs, and in the wake of Starmer’s intervention that has been confirmed.
A message sent to Labour MSPs by deputy group leader Jackie Baillie said: “It is for each MSP to make their own decision on how they will vote on this bill.”
Baillie told her group that she had organised two briefing sessions, one with representatives from each side of the debate, in order to allow them to have informed choices.
So far, six Labour MSPs, including frontbenchers, have supported McArthur’s bill: Monica Lennon, Daniel Johnson, Paul Sweeney, Martin Whitfield, Katy Clark, and Carol Mochan.
Starmer has also suggested that he would also give his MPs a free vote on the issue.
The last time MPs at Westminster voted on a legalising assisted suicide was in 2015, with the bill defeated by two votes to one.
Earlier this week, ITV reported an Opinium poll, conducted on behalf of the pro-assisted dying campaign group Dignity in Dying, found that 74% of the British public support a law change, while 14% oppose it.
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