Kemi Badenoch's God Delusion
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has given a wide-ranging interview to the BBC’s Amol Rajan in which she touched upon her Nigerian upbringing, her feeling of identity and she even revealed she called out a peer for cheating at school. But perhaps her most interesting comments came when she revealed how she lost her belief in God.
The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie, author of Twelve Churches, and Tim Shipman join Oscar Edmondson to discuss Kemi’s comments. Is it credible to call yourself a ‘cultural Christian’? And, with both an atheist Prime Minister and agnostic Leader of the Opposition, is the decline of religion in politics inevitable?
Plus: with the news that Germany will suspend weapons exports to Israel, following Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel will pursue a full takeover of Gaza, will the UK follow suit?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the spectator's daily politics podcast. I'm Oscar |
| 0:10.6 | Edmondson, and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman and the Reverend Fergus Butler Guy. Now, Nigel Farage |
| 0:15.5 | has been using recess to make various announcement, and Reform's media onslaught has meant that |
| 0:20.2 | much of the air has been |
| 0:21.1 | sucked out from the other parties. Presumably, to combat this, Conservative leader Kemi Baden |
| 0:25.7 | gave a wide-ranging interview with the BBC's Amal Rajan, in which she talks about her upbringing |
| 0:30.4 | in Nigeria, how her understanding of her identity has changed over time, and even the incident |
| 0:36.0 | where she snitched on a fellow pupil for cheating on an |
| 0:38.6 | exam. But perhaps the most interesting comments came when she talked about her faith, or rather |
| 0:43.2 | lack of, and we can hear a clip now. I rejected God, not Christianity, so I would still |
| 0:48.3 | define myself as a cultural Christian. In 2008, this story about Joseph Ritzel and his daughter, who was locked in a cellar for 24 years. |
| 1:01.2 | In Isworth? Yes, that killed it. And I couldn't stop reading the story. And I read her account, |
| 1:07.5 | how she prayed, you know, every day for it to be rescued. |
| 1:12.1 | And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things. |
| 1:14.6 | And I was getting my prayers answered. |
| 1:16.7 | You know, I was praying to have good grades. |
| 1:18.6 | My hair should grow longer. |
| 1:20.0 | And, you know, I'd pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. |
| 1:23.6 | It's like, why were those prayers answered? |
| 1:25.7 | And not this woman's prayers. |
| 1:27.2 | And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle. |
| 1:30.6 | Tim, just to start, how do you think these comments are going to go down with the electorate? |
... |
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