‘I am willing to die’: hunger-striking mother of writer jailed in Egypt fights on in London hospital bed

Laila Soueif: ‘I will continue until there is some positive response from the Egyptian government, whether it is allowing my son to have a consular visit or his release.’ Photograph: supplied

Laila Soueif, lying in a hospital bed after refusing all food for 152 days in a bid to free her jailed son, agreed on Wednesday night to be put on a glucose drip, although it is only likely to delay her full collapse by days.

She said she had taken the step as part of a deal she had reached with her children that they would be allowed one chance to intervene before she collapses.