Shabana Mahmood has revealed the “naughtiest thing” she has ever done – taking a drag on a cigarette.
The home secretary, tipped as a successor to Keir Starmer as Labour leader, said she began having an asthma attack when she puffed on a cigarette as a teenager.
“So I figured that was God telling me, don’t smoke,” she said.
The tale is reminiscent of when Theresa May claimed the naughtiest thing she had ever done was running through “fields of wheat” as a child.
The confession, made by the then-prime minister during an ITV interview in 2017, sparked widespread ridicule and prompted a flurry of memes. She said at the time: “You can’t get away from the fact that I was a vicar’s daughter.”
Ms Mahmood also revealed what keeps her up at night in her job.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: “I don’t think there’s any home secretary that sleeps particularly well at night. I read stuff on a daily basis… and it’s pretty hair raising stuff.
“There are things that bad people in our country are planning every day, and I just thank God every day that we have such excellent people working in the same field trying to keep them at bay. And to disrupt their plots.”
She also spoke of how “central” her faith was to her life.
“I believe as a practicing Muslim that, in the end, we are accountable for what we do in this life to God. And so what I try to do every day as a politician.”
She added: “And then of course, in this world of big threats, you know, do I say a prayer regularly? Yes, I do. I say a prayer for our safety and I say a prayer of thanks every day as well.”
It was during the election campaign that Ms May, who was home secretary before becoming prime minister, was asked what the “naughtiest thing she ever did” was.
Visibly panicked, she replied: “Oh, goodness me. Well, I suppose… gosh. Do you know, I’m not quite sure. I can’t think what the naughtiest thing.
“Well, nobody is ever perfectly behaved, are they? I mean, you know, there are times when… I have to confess, when me and my friend, sort of, used to run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren’t too pleased about that.”
In the days afterwards, the then Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson was asked the same question.
She replied: “My mother would not like to see it in print. Let’s just say, I did inhale.”
She later openly mocked the PM by posting a picture of herself running through a field of wheat.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
