'Disrespectful, insulting': MPs criticise terminally ill Esther Rantzen's assisted dying intervention

Terminally ill journalist Dame Esther Rantzen was branded "disrespectful" and "insulting" by MPs during a debate on the assisted dying bill.

The broadcaster and Childline founder wrote to all MPs ahead of Friday's Commons' debate urging them to vote for what she called a "crucial reform". MPs were voting on amendments made to the bill - the report stage - following months of a committee going line by line through it after being introduced last year by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.

The bill says people with six months to live who have the mental capacity can request medical assistance to legally end their life. Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer, suggested many MPs who opposed the bill have "undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy them".

However, in a highly charged Commons session, some MPs took umbrage with that. Labour MP Florence Eshalomi, who is a Christian and voted against the bill the first time, told the Commons: "This is frankly insulting to disabled people, hard working professionals up and down the country, who have raised many valid concerns about this bill, to have it dismissed as religious beliefs." Jess Asato, a Labour MP who, as a child, cared for her grandmother with serious health problems, said Dame Esther "accused those of us who have concerns about the bills as having undeclared religious beliefs".

"Many colleagues found this distasteful and disrespectful," said the MP, who previously voted against the bill. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who voted against the bill last year, backed Ms Asato's criticism as he retweeted her X post saying Dame Esther's comment about faith was "particularly distasteful".

Ms Asato's Commons comment was met with agreement by many MPs who said: "Hear, hear." Read more:What is in the assisted dying bill?Requirement for High Court judge scrapped 'Clumsy criticism' Conservative MP Dr Kieran Mullan said there had been some "unhelpful remarks by high profile campaigners.