MPs have severely criticised Dame Esther Rantzen for complaining that opposition to assisted suicide came from politicians with “undeclared personal religious beliefs”.
The TV personality, who has terminal lung cancer, appealed for the support of the House of Commons in a letter to MPs amid waning support for Spen Valley Labour MP’s Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as it began its Report Stage.
Dame Esther, 84, who was promised a change in the law by Sir Keir Starmer before last year’s General Election, grumbled that “there are some who oppose this crucial reform”.
She said: “Many of them have undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy them.”
Jess Asato, the Labour MP for Lowestoft, during the Report Stage debate invited Ms Leadbeater to distance herself from Dame Esther’s remarks.
She said Dame Esther “accuses those of us who have concerns about the Bill as having undeclared religious beliefs”, adding: “Many colleagues found this distasteful and disrespectful.”
Ms Leadbeater replied: “I haven’t seen those comments, but it’s absolutely right that whatever our views are, whatever our views are on this issue, we must remain respectful.”
Florence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, said: “It is frankly insulting to disabled people, hardworking professionals up and down the country who have raised many valid concerns about this Bill, to have it dismissed as religious beliefs.”
As amendments were debated, it emerged that two Labour MPs have joined four others in announcing their intentions to reverse their support for the Bill when they have the chance of a vote at Third Reading next month.
Another Labour MP has also announced that he will vote against the Bill, having previously abstained.
Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, a Catholic, said that the Bill had revealed “the worst of Parliament”.
He said on X: “A Bill that will give huge power to the state over people who by definition are vulnerable without any party having set out an agenda and for which it can be held accountable. Power without responsibility. Parliament is broken.”
The Report Stage debate will continue on June 13 with a decisive Third Reading vote on either the same day or a week later on June 20.
The attack by Dame Esther on religious faith follows her earlier demand for the Catholic Church to be silenced.
She objected bitterly when Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, issued a pastoral letter urging the faithful to write to the MPs and ask them to vote against the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill at Second Reading.
She said she was “deeply disappointed” by his intervention, adding: “The archbishop himself is guided by the faith he has personally chosen. But surely that does not mean he should impose his faith on those who do not share it.”
Dame Esther later suggested to BBC Radio Solent that the Catholic Church, as a registered charity, was acting beyond its remit by involving itself in politics.
“Isn’t that lobbying?” she said. “I think that’s a bit extreme, even if you believe it.”
Cardinal Nichols strongly asserted the right of Catholics to make their voices heard in the debate, however.
He said: “The whole point of a democracy is that we share views and I think we know that there are many voices of strong conviction in our society and all of them have a right to be heard.”
Cardinal Nichols added: “Nobody should be excluded. That those whose views are formed in a tradition that has shaped our civilisation over 2,000 years are suddenly cancelled really is not acceptable.”
<em>(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)</em>
