It’s one of Westminster’s more flamboyant rituals. Deputy Speaker Nus Ghani donned white silk gloves and read out the numbers written on balls plucked from a glass fishbowl to determine which MPs had won Parliamentary time for a Private Member’s Bill. The winners can choose any subject of their choice and eagerly watching campaigners now hope they can persuade one of the winners to adopt their cause: allowing the terminally ill assistance with dying.

A high-profile campaign by TV presenter and lung cancer-sufferer Dame Esther Rantzen, alongside petitions and changing public attitudes have driven the issue up the agenda. That means the MPs who won the draw on Thursday morning will face intense lobbying to introduce a bill to end the criminalisation of helping someone to end their life and end the current penalty of a jail term of up to 14 years under laws dating back to the 1960s.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during the election campaign he is “personally committed” to allowing a vote on decriminalising assisted dying and indicated he will devote it attention and grant his party a free vote.

The time has come for a fresh look because the country risks being outpaced by its neighbours. Parliament’s temperature was last taken in 2015 when MPs voted against changing the law by 330 votes to 118. But a February report by the Health and Social Care committee warned that approaches to this “difficult, sensitive and yet crucial” issue could soon diverge across the country because of legislative changes already underway in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

Meanwhile, public attitudes are also shifting. A poll by Opinium for the pro-assisted dying organisation Dignity in Dying earlier this year........

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