Britain is ‘the most unbelievably class-ridden country’ says Leith

PRUE LEITH has said that the UK is “the most unbelievably classridden country”.

The Great British Bake Off judge, 80, inset, told the Radio Times she was shocked by the class divide when she moved to England from South Africa.

She told the magazine: “In South Africa there’s a racial divide, and that was terrible.

“But when I came to England, I couldn’t believe the gradations of class.

“People were looked down on for saying ‘toilet’.”

Leith added that there is a “nervousness about stepping out of your class” in the UK, adding: “I remember people saying, ‘You shouldn’t have ideas above your station’.

“You bloody well should!”

Leith said she “can’t bear” to hear her own voice because it sounds “posh”.

She added that she thinks there is also a class divide in the diets of people in the UK.

“I think it’s true that, generally, educated people have a better life because they know more stuff and they know how to do things,” she said. Leith, who said she never buys ready meals or takeaways, added: “I can make a really cheap meal with cabbage, bacon, onion and garlic.

“The people who most need to feed their children nutritiously and cheaply because they haven’t got much money are the ones that have the least education about cooking and food.”

Leith spoke to The Yorkshire Post in September last year, when she talking about agreeing to be part of a government-backed review into the poor quality of hospital food.

She said at the time: “I have been campaigning about hospital food for a number of years and has been involved with Sustain, and their better hospital food campaign.

“We thought we were getting somewhere two years ago, we were talking to the hospitals and showing them best practice but then it just didn’t get anywhere.

“Unless the people at the top buy into change then nothing will happen.”

She added: “I didn’t want to be the latest celebrity chef wheeled out as a publicity stunt, I needed commitment that they really wanted to make changes and the money would be made available to make that happen.”