SCOTTISH MSPs’ vote in Holyrood tomorrow on assisted dying is a “defining moment” perhaps for decades to come, Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray said.

Stating he would set out his own position during the final debate on Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Mr Gray told BBC Radio Scotland: “I’ve been neutral on the Bill representing the government’s neutrality.

“It’s been, I think, a very good debate from both sides of the argument, almost the entire way through.

“We are in unprecedented territory, and it will be a defining moment, I believe, of this parliamentary session, and could potentially be a defining moment in Scotland for decades to come.”

The final vote comes after a marathon week of late-night sittings at Holyrood, as MSPs considered more than 300 amendments to the controversial legislation, accepting 175.

Describing the amended Bill as “bulletproof,” Mr McArthur said: “I am clear that we have crafted a Bill that provides compassionate choice for dying people alongside clarity and protections for the professionals who will support them to exercise that choice.”

Others were less than convinced, with the changes prompting the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to oppose it and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which remains neutral on the principle, to join them, arguing the amendments “drastically weakened essential safeguards” for psychiatrists and other medical staff.

At Westminster, more than 150 MPs — over 100 of them Labour — have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for intervention to speed the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill through the House of Lords where only half of the 1,200 proposed amendments have been considered after 11 days of debate.

The letter, co-ordinated by Labour MP Peter Prinsley, accuses peers of “using procedural tactics to block the Bill.”

But fellow Labour MP Jess Asato argued: “The sponsor of the Bill has rejected 99 per cent of suggested improvements and amendments in the House of Lords and so it still contains all the same faults and issues.

“We know this is true because the experts, such as the royal colleges and professionals, have told the Lords this.

“Any MP that voted to push this Bill through would do so knowing that it is unsafe and would harm vulnerable people.”