Alex Batty says he decided to return to UK after argument with his mother

Alex Batty before his disappearance. The teenager, who was missing for six years, said he returned home because his mother’s nomadic lifestyle ‘wasn’t a great way to live for my future’. Photograph: Greater Manchester Police/Reuters

Alex Batty, the teenager who returned to the UK six years after he disappeared with his mother and grandfather, has revealed he decided to come back for a better future, having realised his mother was “a great person but not a great mum”.

Interviewed for the first time, the 17-year-old said he realised he could no longer live with his “anti-government, anti-vax” mum after an argument.