Dame Prue Leith’s son blasted after saying she doesn’t ‘see sense’ in assisted dying debate

The son of Dame Prue Leith has caught backlash after speaking out on the divisive assisted dying law, saying his mother has failed to ‘see sense’.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger has campaigned against assisted dying, while Dame Prue has voiced her support, having watched her brother, David, in agony towards the end of his life.

In the latest development, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday.

However, the legislation could face a difficult passage through the House of Lords, with critics continuing to raise safeguarding concerns and poised to table amendments adding further restrictions.

Interviewed yesterday, Kruger, 50, was quizzed on having opposing views to GBBO star Dame Prue, 85.

The South African-British restaurateur has said for years that she wants the law to pass, which, if it does, will make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to receive medical assistance to end their lives in England and Wales.

There will be a series of criteria that a person must meet to be eligible.

Appearing on BBC’s Newsnight, Kruger was asked whether being on opposite sides of the argument has impacted his relationship with his mum.

‘This debate actually has not broken any friendships for me at all, including of my own Party and certainly with my mum,’ he began.

‘We seem to be able to disagree well on this.’

‘I think these are very profound issues, both in conscience but also practicality,’ he continued.

‘I regret my mum has not seen sense and come round to my point of view, but I understand why she hasn’t.’

It was Kruger’s final statement that caught many viewers’ attention, with @dicofran on X calling it ‘condescending’.

‘Breathtaking arrogance towards Prue Leith’, slammed @JoBlandUnity.

‘Massive man baby has a tantrum because a woman has her own point of view’, replied @ClaireDunkley4.

‘How arrogant. Accusing his own mother of not seeing sense, because she doesn’t share his views’, argued @NWomxn.

Previously, the Tory politician said to Sky News that it is ‘impossible’ for the assisted dying bill to be ‘tight enough’.

He said no one would need the option if the UK had ‘top-quality palliative care’.

In a series of tweets last night, he further accused assisted dying campaigners of being ‘militant anti-Christians’ who had failed to ‘engage with the detail of the Bill’.

However, Dame Prue believes his attitudes would shift had he witnessed his ‘uncle die or his father die’.

Asked if she and her son lock horns over the heated topic, Dame Prue admitted that they ‘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.’

Kruger, who has been the MP for East Wiltshire since 2019, lost his father, Rayne Kruger, in 2002.

As for his uncle, David was in his sixties and had bone cancer, with his sister Dame Prue having been by his side when he was ‘screaming’ in pain.

Speaking to Sky broadcaster Sophie Ridge, Dame Prue recalled how morphine only worked ‘for a couple of hours’ with him.

‘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.’

She said he 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”.’

Dame Prue believes there is ‘no question’ that the current legal set-up is not working.

Other celebrities throwing their support behind the legislation include Dame Esther Rantzen, who turns 85 tomorrow.

The TV star has terminal cancer but has acknowledged the law would probably not be passed in time for her to use it, and she would have to ‘buzz off to Zurich’ to use the Dignitas clinic.

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