Kemi Badenoch says Josef Fritzl case made her lose faith in God

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has opened up about how she lost her faith in God after reading concerning the notorious case of Josef Fritzl. 

The Austrian’s abuse of his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, shocked the world when it emerged he had locked her up in his basement for twenty-four years and fathered seven children along with her, including one which had died at birth.

Elisabeth Fritzl and 6 surviving children were freed in April 2008 after one in every of them fell sick and was taken to hospital, where doctors grew suspicious. 

Badenoch said that reading concerning the case “blew out a candle” on her faith. 

Speaking to the BBC, she said that she still held to a “cultural Christianity” but that the story of Elisabeth Fritzl had “killed” her faith. 

Badenoch is the granddaughter of a priest and grew up a committed Christian. 

She explained that she couldn’t understand why her prayers for trivial matters were being answered and never Elisabeth Fritzl’s prayers for something as serious as being free of imprisonment and abuse. 

“I believed, I used to be praying for all varieties of silly things and I used to be getting my prayers answered,” she said. 

“I used to be praying to have good grades. My hair should grow longer, and I might pray for the bus to return on time so I wouldn’t miss something.

“It’s like, why were those prayers answered and never this woman’s prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.”

She said that Josef Fritzl’s abuse of his daughter had raised in her “a level of disgust and abhorrence that I’d never experienced”. 

Although she has rejected God, she says she has not rejected Christianity and that she values the role it has played in shaping British society. 

“I rejected God, not Christianity. So I might still define myself as a cultural Christian,” she said.