Andrea Leadsom forced to deny God would be driving policy if she became PM in series of car crash interviews during Tory leadership
She also said gay couples shouldn’t be able to marry in church as she tries to win support from MPs in crucial vote
ANDREA LEADSOM was today forced to deny God would be driving policy if she became PM in a series of car crash interviews by the Tory leadership hopeful.
The junior minister – a Devout Christian – also said gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry in church, branded foxes ‘vermin’ and compared having an offshore mortgage with buying a book from Amazon.
But she was left speechless as a Channel 4 reporter asked if she ever felt she had been spoken to “directly by God”.
After composing herself, the shock Tory contender said: “That question is not one that is for, you know, laughing at and poking fun at.
“I can absolutely feel that is what you would like to do.
“I absolutely am a Christian and I’m very proud of it, it absolutely acts in the background in my desire to have a very honest campaign with high integrity.
“But if you’re asking me am I going to be saying ‘God’s told me to do this and that’, then of course that’s not the case.”
The extraordinary exchange came as Ms Leadsom came under yet more pressure over allegations she sexed-up her CV – and relentless questioning over her tax affairs.
She branded claims she embellished details of her 25 year in finance “rubbish” despite her campaign publishing a revised CV earlier this week.
And she defiantly tried to play down a controversy over buying three buy-to-let properties a decade ago with mortgages from the Jersey branch of Kleinwort Benson, a private bank specialising in wealthy clients.
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The Minister – who has still to publish a tax return - told the BBC: “I shopped around for the cheapest deal.
“At the time it was being offered by UK bank who booked it to Jersey the same way if you buy a book from Amazon you may find they book it in Luxembourg.
“That doesn’t make you a tax avoider, it doesn’t mean you do it deliberately.
“They booked it in Jersey and subsequently the decided to book it in London. So that, I think, that is the story.”
But it is her comments about fox hunting and gay marriage that will likely prove more controversial – despite matching the beliefs of a large number of traditional Conservative Party members.
She said that as PM she would review the ban on fox hunting, so hunts could “exterminate vermin”.
On gay marriage she insisted that she believed love between same sex couples was “every bit as valuable” as straight relationships.
But she said her problem with the Same Sex Marriage Act was that the law “forced” Christian churches down a route “many are uncomfortable with”.