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Stop blaming Prue Leith for her Tory MP son's comments on abortion, say sexism campaigners

EDITORIAL USE ONLY Prue Leith bakes chocolate chip cookies for Avast's Accept All Cookies campaign, London. Issue date: Tuesday April 12, 2022.
Sexism campaigners have defended Dame Prue Leith over attacks related to her son. (PA)

People should stop blaming Dame Prue Leith for her Tory MP son's comments on abortion, sexism campaigners have said.

Bake Off judge Dame Prue, 82, was attacked online after her son Danny Kruger, MP for Devizes, said he didn't agree women had "an absolute right to bodily autonomy" during a debate on abortion in the House of Commons.

It followed the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling, which is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of US states.

Campaign group Everyday Sexism criticised those who attacked Dame Prue over Kruger's comments, tweeting: “Now Prue Leith is trending instead of her anti-abortion MP son Danny Kruger.

"Stop blaming women for what the men in their lives do #EverydaySexism.”

Watch: Danny Kruger: Women do not have ‘absolute right of bodily autonomy

Barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman added: “Whether you like Prue Leith or not, she has nothing to do with her son’s misogyny.

“Danny Kruger MP said women should not have full bodily autonomy, but somehow it is his mother’s fault. Stop blaming women for men’s sexism.”

A social media user had targeted Dame Prue, tweeting: “Bake Off fans, I present...the densest, bitterest, most emetic thing Prue Leith has ever produced.”

Another person added: “Some mother brought her son, Danny Kruger, up to think like this about women.

“Quite shocked it was Prue Leith, who had a backstreet abortion as a young woman. Horrific that her son wants that for others.”

Dame Prue previously revealed she had a backstreet abortion when she was 15.

Read more: Voices: It’s not just the US rolling back women’s rights – Britain is too

Great British Bake Off S5 FINAL.  Judges Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, with presenters Noel Feilding and Matt Lucas
Dame Prue Leith with the Great British Bake Off team. (Getty)

It came as a new report from media watchdog Ofcom found women were more affected by discriminatory, hateful and trolling content online.

Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes said: “The message from women who go online is loud and clear.

"They are less confident about their personal online safety, and feel the negative effects of harmful content like trolling more deeply.

"We urge tech companies to take women’s online safety concerns seriously and place people’s safety at the heart of their services."

Read more: WHO chief: US abortion ruling 'a setback,' will cost lives

MPs were told on Tuesday that far-right American groups wanting to roll back UK abortion protections will be given “renewed impetus” by a landmark US Supreme Court ruling.

Labour former minister Dame Diana Johnson issued the warning as she raised concerns over the decision in the US to end constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for nearly 50 years.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger later said: “They think that women have an absolute right to bodily autonomy in this matter, whereas I think in the case of abortion that right is qualified by the fact that another body is involved.”

As MPs tried to speak over him, he added: “I would offer to members who are trying to talk me down that this is a proper topic for political debate and my point to the frontbench is I don’t understand why we are lecturing the United States on a judgment to return the power of decision over this political question to the states, to democratic decision-makers, rather than leaving it in the hands of the courts.”