Reciting Hamlet helped stroke recovery, says ex-MP

A former Labour MP has revealed he recited Shakespeare from his hospital bed as he battled to get his speech back after suffering a stroke.

Jonathan Ashworth said he feared he would never speak again after falling ill on New Year's Day.

The 47-year-old, who represented Leicester South between 2011 and 2024, reflected on his recovery as he was made a CBE for "political and parliamentary service" and charity work in a ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.

"I found out I was getting honoured by this prestigious recognition for my work on behalf of children of alcoholics - and then a couple of days later I was hit with a stroke, but I'm recovering," the former shadow health secretary said.

"One of those life's funny coincidences, I suppose".

Ashworth said he recited lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet in the days after he was hit by a stroke as he fought to test his speech and memory at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

"They must have thought me very eccentric in the hospital, because I sat there quoting Shakespeare monologues," he said after his investiture ceremony.

"There's a monologue about how a man is so infinite in his faculties and so noble in his movement and reason, and yet in the end, it's just dust.

"Bit of a depressing monologue, probably not the most cheery monologue to be talking about on a day of celebration like this."

He added he was "so worried" he would not be able to speak at the investiture.

Ashworth, who stepped down as chief executive of influential think-tank Labour Together in July, also refused to rule out a return to frontline politics.

"I'll quote Tony Benn, somebody who is not often quoted, I suspect, in Windsor Castle," he said.

"Tony Benn famously said there's no final defeats or final victories, you just keep on going."

Ashworth, whose own father died of alcoholism, is a patron of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACOA).

"I felt particularly moved and touched when I heard the Lord Chamberlain mention that this was also my recognition for advocacy on the behalf of children of alcoholics," he said.

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