THE Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, lost her faith in God after reading about the abuse that Josef Fritzl inflicted on his daughter Elisabeth.

In an interview with Amol Rajan, broadcast on BBC2 on Thursday evening, Ms Badenoch said that, growing up, she had believed that God “does not test you more than you can bear”, and that she found strength in her faith when she was having a hard time.

But, she said, “no human being should have had to experience” what Elisabeth endured. In 2009, Fritzl pleaded guilty to imprisoning his daughter in a basement for 24 years, where he raped her repeatedly.

“She prayed every day to be rescued, and I thought, ‘I was praying for all sorts of stupid things . . . why were those prayers answered, and not this woman’s prayers?’”, Ms Badenoch said.

Her faith in God was extinguished “like someone blew out a candle”, she said. Religion had been around her growing up, and she had believed in God, although she “wasn’t that religious”.

Ms Badenoch’s grandfather was a Methodist minister. She was born in London, and spent her childhood in Nigeria and the United States, before moving to the UK to study for her A levels at the age of 16.

At the time that the Fritzl case appeared in the news, Ms Badenoch was working in banking. She became the Conservative MP for Saffron Walden in 2017, and leader of her party after its election defeat last year.

Ms Badenoch has previously described herself as a “cultural Christian”, and told the BBC that she was leaning into this more, suggesting that it was, perhaps, a result of “getting older and needing something to fill a space”.

“The world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values,” she said.

Her husband, Hamish Badenoch, is a Roman Catholic, and the couple’s three children are being raised in the RC Church. According to reports, she has previously described herself as an “honorary Catholic”.

Last year, when she was Minister for Equalities, she defended the right of the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Kate Forbes, to express views on social issues that were informed by her Christian faith, saying: “If you’re asking me to condemn someone for their religious views, you’ve misunderstood the role of a Minister for Equality.”