Shadow home secretary Chris Philp failed to name the leader of the Welsh Conservatives despite being asked five times during a television interview on Sunday morning. The MP for Croydon South appeared on GB News to discuss the party's disastrous performance in Thursday's Caerphilly by-election.
The Welsh Conservatives received just two per cent of the vote, finishing last behind Plaid Cymru (47%), Reform UK (36%) and Welsh Labour (11%). Political editor Christopher Hope questioned Philp about the result and asked: "Do you know who your Welsh leader is in Wales?"
Repeated deflection attempts
Philp initially avoided the question, saying: "We have obviously fought that by-election hard, disappointing result for the main parties - Plaid Cymru obviously won that and Reform did pretty well." He attributed the poor performance to the party being in a "process of recovery and of renewal".
The shadow minister attempted to shift focus to the Conservative Party conference, describing it as a "turning point" with new policies announced including leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Hope persisted, asking for the Welsh Conservative leader's name four more times during the interview.
Final admission of ignorance
After the fourth attempt, Hope told Philp: "If you don't know, you can say - who is the leader of the Welsh Tories?" When asked a fifth time, with Hope adding "it's totally fine" if he didn't know, Philp finally admitted: "We've got a relatively new leader and I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid the name escapes me."
Hope then revealed the answer: "He's called Darren Millar and that does matter because the party is disappearing rapidly into the sand of a Welsh beach."
Welsh Conservative leadership
Darren Millar, the Clwyd West MS, was elected as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd in December last year. He was first elected to the Welsh Parliament in May 2007 and has been re-elected in 2011, 2016 and 2021.
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
