Prue Leith tells Piers Morgan her Tory MP son needs to 'man up' over their assisted dying clash
Watch: Prue Leith opens up about her views on assisted dying
Prue Leith has said that her Tory MP son needs to "man up" in their disagreement over assisted dying.
The Great British Bake Off star, 82, appeared on Piers Morgan's TalkTV show Uncensored on Tuesday where she held nothing back in her views on assisted dying and how strongly she disagrees with her own son, Danny Kruger MP.
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Kruger has been fighting any change in the law to end of life care, telling Parliament "there are a lot of people who want Granny and Grandpa to hurry up and die", but Leith said that she was fully in support of assisted dying.
Leith told Morgan: "Well, that's going to be a real problem because we are devoted to each other and he has generally very principled objections. I think he's quite wrong… First of all, I'm hoping that he will not manage to muster all his mates in Parliament and vote against it, and that I will manage to persuade him before I get there."
She continued: "Many families have disagreements about all sorts of things, we happen to have one about this. But I really think I honestly believe that it I should be in control of my own life. I mean, I think the idea that, that that somehow human life is so sacred, and it's sacred to whom, it's not sacred to me and it's my life?"
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Leith made it clear that she would only suggest an assisted death if she found she was within six months of dying, but asked by Morgan whether Kruger might worry that it would add to his distress at eventually losing her, she replied: "No, I'm sorry. When it comes to my own life, it's my life. Tough he's going to lose me within six months [in that hypothetical situation] anyway. So then man up and bear it a few months earlier or a few weeks earlier."
Celebrated cook Leith said that she had been giving more consideration to the subject because she was getting older and had lost two brothers in very different circumstances.
Admitting that she was "82 and heading for the big decision", she said: "My elder brother died and he died a really horrible death. And recently, my younger brother died and he died at home with his family around him. And, didn't need it, but he had the sort of death that I think that people who weren't assisted suicide would dearly love to have, you know, at home, their own bed, surrounded by their family."
She added: "Everybody should have the choice. I'm not saying that they have to do it, of course… Because [as the situation is now] it definitely drives people to Switzerland, if they can afford it, and very often to attempted suicide if they can't afford it."
Leith also said that she would support safeguards to make sure that people were not being coerced into the decision by what their family stood to gain, which was one of Kruger's concerns.
Watch: Danny Kruger claims women do not have 'absolute right of bodily autonomy'