Reciting Hamlet helped with stroke recovery, says ex-MP Jonathan Ashworth

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 the 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