Shadow home secretary Chris Philp failed to name the leader of the Welsh Conservatives despite being asked five times during a television interview. The MP for Croydon South appeared on GB News on Sunday morning to discuss the party's poor performance in the Caerphilly by-election.
The Welsh Conservatives received just two per cent of the vote in Thursday's by-election, finishing last behind Plaid Cymru (47%), Reform UK (36%) and Welsh Labour (11%). Political editor Christopher Hope questioned Philp about the disappointing result and asked if he knew "who your Welsh leader is in Wales".
Repeated questions go unanswered
Philp initially avoided the question, saying the party had "fought that by-election hard" and describing it as a "disappointing result for the main parties". He attributed the poor performance to the Conservative Party being "still in a process of recovery and of renewal".
Hope persisted, asking for the Welsh Conservative leader's name four more times during the interview. After the fourth attempt, Hope told Philp: "If you don't know, you can say - who is the leader of the Welsh Tories?"
Final admission of ignorance
When asked a fifth time, 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, saying: "He's called Darren Millar and that does matter because the party is disappearing rapidly into the sand of a Welsh beach."
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).
