Lorraine Kelly praises "amazing" Dame Esther Rantzen as Sir Keir Starmer vows to change assisted dying laws

Dame Esther Rantzen's bid to legalise assisted dying has been given a huge boost - from Sir Keir Starmer himself.

The Labour Party leader has given his "committment" to Dame Esther that he will change the law around assisted dying by the end of the decade, if he is elected and becomes Prime Minister. Dame Esther was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023 and was told by doctors she would likely die "sometime in the next 10 years".

Since then, the 83-year-old has joined Dignitas, an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland - and is campaigning for MPs to change the law around assisted dying, which currently leaves family members open to criminal prosecution if they accompany a relative to such a clinic.

In a phone call with TV presenter, Sir Keir said: "I'm very interested in your campaign and I think it's very important that we do make time for a vote on this. I'm personally in favour of changing the law, I can give you my commitment to that."

On ITV's Lorraine show this morning (14 March) Dame Esther's daughter Rebecca Wilcox

She said: "It's such an important topic to our family and to so many people out there. I cannot imagine being 84 and doing this campaign, let alone having stage four lung cancer and everything that comes along with that.

"I'm very grateful to Sir Kier for making that commitment, but we need things to happen now.

"It sounds like a fairytale and at the moment it is that. You still face the risk of prosecution for up to two years - this is not working. the laws and rules are not clear and not protecting people like me, my family and the thousands of others like us."

Lorraine Kelly also offered her backing to Dame Esther's campaign, describing the journalist as "amazing".

"You should be able to go when you are ready to go," said Lorraine. "And you can't be with your loved ones because they could be charged with an offence. Rebecca, please send your wonderful, amazing mother all of our love. She is just astonishing."