Fritzl case led Badenoch to ‘reject God', says Tory leader
In an interview with the BBC, Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'.
But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years.
Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, said: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued.
'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something.
'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.'
But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'.
During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'.
In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.'
She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live.
'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.'
And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life.
Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.'
She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
4 minutes ago
- BBC News
Mercedes ploughs into front of house in Grimsby
A car has ploughed into a house in Police said officers responded to reports of a crash on Winchester Avenue, shortly after 13:00 BST on Wednesday.A silver Mercedes hit the wall of a property, causing damage, a spokesperson said. No one was injured and the force has appealed for CCTV and dashcam footage. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Daily Mirror
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Family of This Morning star killed in Air India crash received the wrong body
Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek were on board the Air India flight bound for London that crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 242 of the 243 people on board A woman who lost her brother in the Air India crash says being given the wrong remains has heaped further trauma on her grieving family. Husbands Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, 39 and 45 respectively, were among the 242 people killed in the crash on June 12 just outside Ahmedabad airport in India's Ahmedabad state. Fiongal's sister Arwen says the heartbroken family is now seeking accountability from the officials who mislabelled her beloved brother's remains. It comes after reports of a dad's desperate phone call moments before explosion kills him and his daughters. READ MORE: Comatose woman woke before organ harvesting surgery but 'docs operated anyway' Fiongal had been a guest on This Morning earlier this year to promote the wellness brand he'd co-founded with his husband. Speaking to the BBC, Arwen said she was also looking for "closure for the family" and "dignity" for her brother. She fears the authorities could have even cremated his body as someone else. "If that is not possible - because the worst case scenario is that he has been cremated as somebody else - then we need to know that in order to move on," she said. "Somebody mislabelled remains - that has added trauma." She accused Indian authorities of failing to set up proper "forensic protocols" at the crash site, saying that the site remained open for two days after the plane came down. "It just can't happen again," she said. "I think the whole family were and still are in complete disbelief because it is things that happen on the news and to other people. It was shocking and is confusing." According to the Foreign Office, it is supporting the families of Brits involved in the crash - giving them "dedicated caseworkers". However, on the topic of the "formal identification of bodies", it said it's out of their hands and a "matter for the Indian authorities". Last month, it emerged that some of the deceased were wrongly identified before being flown home to the UK. Relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger rather than their family member, it is reported. And the "co-mingled" remnants of more than one person killed in the crash were mistakenly placed in the same casket in another shocking blunder. They had to be separated before the internment could go ahead. Of the people who died when Air India flight 171 lost power and crashed, seconds after leaving Ahmedabad for London Gatwick, 52 were returning Britons. Two instances of mistaken identity have so far come to light, but there are fears that more such errors could have been made, leaving families under a shadow of uncertainty.
The Guardian
5 minutes ago
- The Guardian
UK homelessness minister faces calls to resign over tenant eviction claims
The UK homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, is facing calls to resign after claims she evicted tenants from her east London property before increasing the rent by almost £700 a month. Four tenants who rented a four-bedroom house owned byAli in east London were given four months' notice in an email last November and told their lease would not be renewed because the property was due to be sold, according to the i Paper. After the tenants left the property, which they had rented for £3,300, they said it was seen relisted at nearly £4,000 a month, the paper said. It reported that the property was relisted for rent after no buyer was found. The renters' rights bill, which is due to come into force next year, will ban landlords who have ended a tenancy in order to sell a property from relisting it for a higher rent. Ali has been widely criticised for apparent hypocrisy. She has spoken out against private renters being exploited and said the Labour government would 'empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases'. Labour and Conservative and SNP politicians have called for her to resign. The shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly, said Ali should consider her position. He told the i-Paper the allegations 'would be an example of the most extreme hypocrisy and she should not have the job as homelessness minister'. Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, said: 'I think it shows staggering hypocrisy. Rushanara Ali has been somebody who's obviously a government minister in charge of homelessness. She's spoken out about exploiting tenants, about providing more protections to tenants. 'You can't say those things, then do the opposite in practice, as a landlord. She's got to resign.' Peter Wishart, he SNP's deputy leader at Westminster, said: 'Once this shameful story broke, Labour's homelessness minister should have immediately resigned. The fact that she still hasn't means this is now a direct test of Keir Starmer – he needs to sack her immediately.' Jess Barnard, a former chair of Young Labour and a member of Labour's NEC, said: 'Seems an appropriate time to reiterate MPs should not be landlords, and landlords should not be Labour MPs.' Martin Abrams, a Labour councillor in Lambeth, posted: 'You couldn't make this up! Rushanara Ali should resign #LandlordsOutOfLabour.' The house, near Ali's Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency, is listed for sale at £894,99. The property was reportedly put up for sale last November, and the price was reduced in February. A source close to Ali, told the BBC that the tenancy had a fixed-term contract and that the house had been put up on the market while the tenants were still there. They said the tenants had been told they could stay on a rolling basis while the house was on the market, but they had chosen to leave. The house was relisted for rental only because it had not sold. Ali's spokesperson said: 'Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.'
