Dame Prue Leith defends Gregg Wallace

Dame Prue Leith has defended under-fire TV star Gregg Wallace.

Gregg, 60, stepped down from hosting 'MasterChef' recently while an investigation into his alleged misconduct is being carried out but 'Great British Bake Off' star Prue, 84, has insisted he "shouldn't be sacked or cancelled".

She told Times Radio: "'I'm a great believer in due process. He should just stay off social media because he's just digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole because he's too insensitive to understand how offensive it is.

"But that's his problem, that he's insensitive. He hasn't, that I can see, disobeyed the law. I don't believe people should be cancelled or sacked. I can see why you would ask somebody to step aside while they investigate things, which I suppose is what they're doing. But I think the tragedy in this is that I bet you Gregg has no idea what he's done wrong."

When asked if she believes that presenters should receive HR training, she said: "I think it's really dangerous because I think, I mean, I'm thinking off the cuff here, so I'll probably get myself into trouble but if you have things too regulated and too organised and everybody's on a script, it can be very boring...nobody will ever dare say anything. And that's silly too. But I think broadcasters need to know."

Prue also admitted that she sometimes gets into trouble for her own language on her TV show 'Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen'.

She said: "It is very tricky because I do a little programme on ITV on Saturday morning and it's a cooking programme and every now and again, the production company will say, don't say that because it'll be offensive and I think that it's not offensive.

"And then I suppose that's a Gregg Wallace thing. Maybe I don't realise. I mean, for example, language changes all the time."