Great British blunder: judge Prue Leith reveals winner of Great British Bake Off hours before finale is aired

The Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith was forced to hastily delete a tweet after she named the winner of this year’s show just hours before the final episode is scheduled to be broadcast.

Leith, who is currently in Bhutan, blamed a mix-up over time difference for the faux-pas.

She earlier told the Press Association she had been confused by the time difference between the Asian country and the UK, thinking the final had already aired.

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“I’m in Bhutan,” she said. “The time difference is massive. I thought that they got it six hours ago. I’m in too much of a state to talk about it. I fucked up.”

"Bhutan is six hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time," says the BBC helpfully.

The Sun’s Dan Wootton retweeted the mistake to his 342,000 followers with the words “OMG PRUE! No baby no!” But “the gossip columnist was attacked by some who had seen his tweet,” reports The Guardian. “There was really no need was there. Why RT and spoil it for everyone?” wrote one fan of the show.

In her now-deleted tweet, Leith said she “wanted [all three finalists] to win” before saying “bravo” to one of them.

Leith replaced veteran chef Mary Berry on the show after the latter opted to remain with the BBC when the show moved over to Channel 4.

Some wags on Twitter even went so far as to suggest the deleted tweet was the work of the former judge.

The gaffe is bound to cause consternation at Channel 4, which is paying £25m a year for Great British Bake Off, with “executives likely to be concerned that the revelation could depress viewing figures for the finale of the first series on the channel,” says The Guardian.