Why The Great British Bake Off’s Prue Leith wants assisted dying bill to pass

Published

7 months ago

November 29, 2024

admin

Dame Prue Leith believes her son would have a “different attitude” towards assisted dying had he watched his uncle or father die – as she did.

The broadcaster, best known for The Great British Bake Off, urged members to “vote for change” as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is set to be debated in the Commons.

MPs will take part in a free vote on the proposed law, which would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given medical assistance to end their own life in England and Wales.

Politics Live: Top Tory says it’s a ‘day of shame’ for his party

Dame Prue told the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that she hadn’t given much thought to assisted dying until the death of her brother David, who she witnessed “screaming in agony” towards the end of his life.

However, her son Danny Kruger – the shadow work and pensions minister – told Sky News previously that it is “impossible” for the assisted dying bill tabled by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater to be “tight enough”.

He said if the UK had “top quality palliative care”, nobody would need the option of assisted dying.

But Dame Prue believes her son “would have a different attitude” had he seen “his uncle die or his father die”.

Asked if she and Mr Kruger argue about the topic, the broadcaster said: “We mostly don’t get into it.

“It always just gets into the long discussion, which is never bad tempered I must say, you know, because we are very fond of each other.”

The Bake Off favourite told Sophy Ridge that she is strongly in favour of assisted dying due to the death of her brother, who she witnessed in “screaming agony” at the end of his life.

David was in his 60s when he died as a result of bone cancer, and Dame Prue recalled the heartbreaking moments she witnessed before his death.

She said: “The morphine would work for a couple of hours, but then it would fail and you wouldn’t get another dose.

“They only did it every four hours. And so he was really first crying, whimpering, moaning, then crying, then screaming, and then absolutely desperate.

“And the rest of the ward have to suffer it. The nurses have to suffer. His family have to suffer it.”

Dame Prue said David was “begging for somebody to help him”.

“He would say things like, ‘if I was a dog, if I was a horse, you would do the right thing by me, you’d put me down.'”

She is urging MPs to “vote for a change” in the law, because “there’s no question the current law is not working”.

MPs will on Friday decide whether or not to back assisted dying. The proposed law would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given medical assistance to end their own life in England and Wales.

The bill sets out detailed requirements in order to be eligible.

The Labour MP proposing it, Ms Leadbeater, says the safeguards are the “most robust” in the world, but others argue it is a “slippery slope towards death on demand”.

Politics

Latest polling says if an election was held tomorrow Reform UK would win a majority

Published

3 hours ago

June 21, 2025

admin

Latest polling says if an election was held tomorrow Reform UK would win a majority

Since the local elections Reform UK has had no shortage of good polls.

But a new one suggests Nigel Farage’s party has a chance not only of winning the next election, but of claiming a decent Commons majority, too.

In February, Reform topped a Sky News/YouGov poll for the first time, with Nigel Farage’s party edging in front on 25%, Labour pushed into second on 24%, with the Tories on 21%.

But a fresh one from Ipsos puts Reform on 34%, nine points ahead of Labour on 25%, with the Conservatives a distant third on 15%.

While the other parties are flatlining, Reform appears to be pushing boundaries.

Were these figures to be replicated across the country at a general election, with every constituency behaving the same way, then Reform could win as many as 340 seats, giving it a majority of 30, Sky News analysis suggests.

Labour could be reduced to 176 seats, down 236 on last year’s election, while the Tories would hit a record low of 12 seats.

But polling should always be taken with a pinch of salt and with the firm acknowledgement that there is not an election coming any time soon.

Conservative backbenchers might also tell you publicly that opinion polls are notoriously difficult to translate into seat numbers because voting percentages in individual constituencies can vary hugely from the overall average.

But the truth is that the symbolism of Reform UK topping another poll is likely to be noticed by MPs from all parties, especially backbench Conservatives who have actively been hoping their leader, Kemi Badenoch, can help them climb the polls and bring the party back into public favour.

Politics is a brutal game and when it comes to toppling underwhelming party leaders, the Tories are more ruthless than most. One wonders how many of these polls Mrs Badenoch’s party will allow her to endure.

This poll is also a warning to Labour.

As the party approaches a year since its major victory, it will not have much to celebrate if these numbers are anything to go by.

According to this survey, only 19% are satisfied with the job Sir Keir Starmer is doing as prime minister, with 73% dissatisfied.

And the figure of 25% of voters intending to vote Labour is a level not seen since October 2019.

While abstract to much of the public, polling can often shape not only the chatter inside Westminster but how and when plots by MPs begin.

For Reform UK, this is a much-needed morale boost after a surprise resignation by their former Chairman Zia Yusuf, and then an almost immediate U-turn back into the party.

And Kemi Badenoch – who said during her leadership campaign that the Conservatives needed to go back to first principles and that this would take time – will be wondering, seven-and-a-half months after winning the leadership, how much time she really has left.

Ipsos interviewed a representative probability sample of 1,180 British adults aged 18+, via the Ipsos UK KnowledgePanel. Data was collected between 30 May-4 June 2025.