Former Bake Off star Sue Perkins compares Prime Minister Theresa May to ‘s*** on a shoe’ 

Television personality and former Great British Bake Off star Sue Perkins compared Theresa May to ‘s*** on a shoe’ last night, after being asked her thoughts on how the Prime Minister had handled a challenging week. 

Perkins, 49, was appearing on Channel 4’s comedy chat show The Last Leg on Friday night when she made the comments. 

Asked by host Adam Mills if she admires the Prime Minister, Perkins said: ‘In the same way I admire s*** on a shoe in that it endures and no amount of poking it with a twig or power-hosing it will remove it, her ability to cling on is the stuff of legend, and I don’t want it near me.’

The former Bake Off star has come in for criticism online, with people taking to Twitter to slam her comments.

One user wrote: ‘Typical ‘I’m alright’ sycophantic z-list celeb’. 

Another added: ‘Was she trying to be funny? Fail. There are better and more relevant ways of criticising possibly the worst Prime Minister in living memory.’

As Perkins made the comments, comedian and actress Kathy Burke could be seen smirking next to her. 

The audience and host Adam Hills could also be heard laughing after the presenter spoke. 

However, Josh Widdecombe and Alex Brooker, also on the show, sat stoney-faced next to Perkins as she made her comments. 

Conservative and Labour politicians reacted with fury to the comments yesterday, including Ministers who demanded an apology from the star.

MP Frank Field said: ‘There is a worrying trend in public life that people are getting more and more obscene and violent in their comments and are being allowed to get away with it. What Sue Perkins said crosses the line. Channel 4 and other broadcasters should not let her on again.’

Senior Westminster figures also weighed in on the row. Treasury Minister John Glen said: ‘Most people will find these comments incredibly distasteful. People who make these comments rarely have any conception of how offensive they are but she should reflect on this and apologise.’

Social media users were less than impressed by the former Bake Off presenter’s comments about the Prime Minister

Tory MP Damian Collins, chairman of the influential Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: ‘Her remarks are disgusting. This is an extremely challenging time for the country. We need to bring people together, not simply dismiss them in the most derogatory terms.’

Robert Halfon, a former Education Minister, said: ‘These luvvies think they can do what they want, say what they want, be as abusive as they want for a few cheap laughs.

‘Perhaps if Sue Perkins spent less time in luvvie-land and met ordinary folk, she would understand the great pressures a decent PM is under and the sympathy she has from the public, whether they agree with the EU deal or not. Perhaps she should do something uncharacteristically decent and apologise.’

And former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale added: ‘A lot of people have disagreements with Theresa May, myself included, but she is the Prime Minister and she deserves respect. It is very easy to monitor impartiality for news, but so much harder for TV comedy. There is a line between being funny and being gratuitously insulting and offensive and this crosses it.’

Perkins is best known as one half of the double act Mel and Sue, with her comedy partner Mel Giedroyc.

They came to national attention in 2010 when they became the presenters of the Great British Bake Off – before leaving in 2016 when the programme was bought by Channel 4. 

Perkins is believed to be worth £4 million and is in a long-term relationship with fellow TV presenter Anna Richardson. 

The couple live together in a five bedroom, £3 million house near Hampstead Heath in north London. 

Mail Online have contacted Channel 4 and Sue Perkins representatives for comment.