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Welsh Conservatives defend leader's absence from Senedd to attend Trump prayer meeting

By Emily Price
Leader of the Conservative Senedd group - Darren Millar

Emily Price

The Conservatives have defended the absence of the Senedd group leader from an important vote on the government’s budget this afternoon. 

Darren Millar will miss First Minister's Questions on Tuesday (February 4) along with the first opportunity to debate Wales' £26bn draft budget.

Instead, he will attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC alongside Members of Congress to pray collectively for America and its leaders.

US President Donald Trump is also expected to attend.

Mr Millar will be accompanied on his trip across the pond by fellow Tory MS Russell George who will also miss the Senedd's budget debate.

Both are trustees of an evangelical Christian organisation that hands out Bibles.

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High-profile

The Senedd Tories have argued that today's debate will merely "note" the budget.

A spokesperson said: "It is not the final vote which will be next month. The Welsh Conservative Group will certainly be voting it down because we believe Labour have the wrong priorities.

"Darren had a longstanding commitment in the US where he will be meeting a number of high-profile politicians.

"Following the decision of Keir Starmer to allow around a hundred Labour activists to campaign abroad against President Trump, Darren’s presence will help rebuild relationships between the US and Wales more broadly."

The draft Budget sets out revenue and capital spending plans for 2025 to 2026.

Because Welsh Labour holds half the seats in the Senedd - they cannot pass the budget if opposition parties unite.

Both Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives have said they will not support the spending plans.

But the Welsh Government looks set to win today's motion with both Mr Millar and Mr George missing.

Senedd Members that miss key votes can ask other Members to pair. It is understood that a request from the Tories to pair with Labour was rejected.

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24 comments

Fanny Hill

God really does work in mysterious ways.

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Jeff

Kissing the ring eh. Bowing before your master. Good doggy. Claims religion but supports a multiple felon and abuser. Favouring a hostile US president over his nation. Despicable.

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Fi yn unig

Is this trip by Millar and George part of Welsh Parliamentary business? It is clearly not Welsh Government business. Will there be ANY cost to the Welsh taxpayer? An unnamed Tory spokesperson says Darren will be ‘meting a number of high profile politicians’. I cannot imagine honesty is something that would be on the agenda in the company he will be keeping but it is necessary in the eyes of God so luckily there won’t be any need for him to pretend he is there on behalf of our country nor that he is a leader of anything as he is not. He and his travelling buddy are, however, members of our Senedd and their presence was required in the chamber today so they should not have been in the U.S. praying for someone who already has what he wants and the God he prays to cannot stop him. No help required. Their absence for the reasons given must be investigated and if any public money has been used, it must be instant dismissal.

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Karl

Sack him. Religion and US cults are for his own time,not ours. He needs to maybe trad a few bible oassages, because Trump and his cronies are not compatible with the teachings.

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Ap Kenneth

You do not have to travel over the Atlantic to join a prayer meeting, praying in the Senedd would work just as well.

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Erisian

Hoping for 20 pieces of silver no doubt. A very low price selling out what little truth, reason and decency he could have laid claim to.

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Y Cymro

If this doesn't show the people of Wales the distain the leader of the Welsh Conservatives Darren Millar has for Wales I don't know what will? He cares more about attending a right-wing American evangelical Christian shindig and meeting Donald Trump than he does Wales or debating and scrutinising Welsh Labour's draft budget. He's truly pathetic and a waste of space. And Reform UK can't crow about Millar going awol seeing their leader Nigel Farage did the very same by spending more time in America campaigning for Donald Trump reelection as president than working for his constituents in Clacton. Also, closer to home. What about that little England hypocrite Nathan Gill. As a current Reform UK member and candidate for the 2026 Senedd elections , he as a former Ukip/Brexit Party Assembly member himself missed numerous Senedd debates & votes opting to travel to the EU parliament trolling EU commissioners & member states with Nigel Farage rather than working for his constituents of Ynys Mon. This is what Reform UK would bring to Welsh politics.

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Dai Ponty

A prayer meeting you say its more like a BUNCH OF DEVIL WORSHIPERS than Christians at prayer it makes a mockery of religion

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Howie

Today's plenary has been on Senedd schedule since August 2024, the Tories would have known that but maybe it was planned for ARTD to be leading for Tories. So the same outcome for Tories nobody of any sense there.

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Mab Meirion

No Way...get him out of our parliament... Orders from his money men in the USA... Shame on our country...

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John Ellis

I can sort of understand Millar's decision, because he's an evangelical Christian and his counterparts in the USA are very largely strong Trump supporters. Not because they endorse Trump's personal life and history - they absolutely don't - but rather because, as fundamentalist Christians, they've opted to view his presidency as a reprise of Persian monarchs in the 500s and 400s BCE whose policies, without any deliberate considered intention on their part, turned out to rather favour the interests of the Jews during that particular era of foreign rule. The theory is that the Kingdom of Persia was an instrument in God's sovereign plan, used to fulfill his promises to Israel. The Persian kings, though pagan, were used by God to accomplish His purposes, demonstrating his control over the nations. Personally, I'm agnostic, but I don't at all deride Christians in any comprehensive way. I once recall listening to an impressive and thoughtful lecture delivered by a distinguished scientific academic who was also a Christian priest. But there's no way that I would ever vote for a politician, whatever his party, who was a conservative evangelical Christian. In my experience - rather long by now, at my advanced age - they're usually the dimmest of the dim!

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hdavies15

Very elaborate reasoning there John. I view it through a far simpler prism. There was some important business scheduled at the Senedd and the 2 Tories have given Labour a free pass, unless one or more of Labour's own decide to vote against their government's policy. Not likely so all the huff and puff from Millar and his sidekick won't be worth a light. Smells like they are getting ready to step aside and let Reform assume the mantle of "top dogs on the right" without a fight.

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John Ellis

Elaborate maybe, but based on over sixty years of personal experience! I opted for Christianity as a teenager - prompted by customary mid-teen dissatisfaction with the priorities around which my parents shaped their lives, which simply didn't back then work for me. That did indeed work for me for thirty years, but bit by bit it gradually fell away. The current saga around the late John Smyth gives some hint as to why I reached that point! But those years enabled me to get a handle on the various varieties of Christians, and to draw my own conclusions as to the integrity and credibility of each of them. But - reverting to the raw contemporary politics of the current situation - I think that I pretty much agree with your last two sentences!

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Nigel

It's a beautiful thing to see the Cons help Labour out in the national interest.

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Adrian

I see the predictable tsunami of Tory bashing but really guys: you're being distracted, it's Reform that are going to be taking over your local authorities, and it'll be PM Farage you need to worry about, once this shower of midwits have finished destroying the UK.

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Nigel

How do you see that happening in terms of the actual numbers in each election? It's difficult to see how more than a third would ever vote for them. And that's not enough to enter government. What aren't we being told?

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John Ellis

On the contrary, I think Adrian has a point. While it's by no means as certain as he implies, I think that there's at least the possibility that Reform will do rather well at the next Senedd election. And even that, if that eventuality, the Welsh Conservatives will swallow their resentment and support Reform in forming the next Welsh government - if, as seems likely, they don't quite get sufficient support to achieve that for themselves. After all, cynically speaking, being the minority party in government is better than being in perpetual opposition, which has been the fate of the Tories in Wales for the last quarter century.

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In reply to John Ellis

Nigel

Does the new system not require the support of more than half the elected members to form a government? Or is it still the undemocratic Westminster system that just lets the largest party have a go? Because the problem with that is the more parties you have (normally a good thing in a healthy democracy) the fewer members the "winner" needs to take control even if they can't legislate. It would be terrible for democracy to have a government that excludes 80% of voters, for example, which could happen with half a dozen parties and a lot of independent candidates.

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In reply to Nigel

John Ellis

'Does the new system not require the support of more than half the elected members to form a government?' You'd think so, but I'm not wholly sure as to how the results will pan out in hard reality as a result of this new projected voting system., Only time will tell what will happen when an election takes place..

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Drew Anderson

Starmer got a huge majority out of 33.7% of the popular vote, on a 59.8% turnout. Fauxrage doing similar isn't exactly fanciful.

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Fanny Hill

Wow, will we be moving Parliament to the USA to make it easier for Nige to attend?

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Nigel

If you want a good deal with America it's important to let America know you have options.

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Karl

You can't get a good deal with someone who proclaims America first. Or by looking weak by crawling for him. Tories are weak and desperate for Musk money, that's all.

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Charles Coombes

Holidays in work time. Dock their pay!

Reply

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Is this trip by Millar and George part of Welsh Parliamentary business? It is clearly not Welsh Government business. Will there be ANY cost to the Welsh taxpayer? An unnamed Tory spokesperson says Darren will be ‘meting a number of high pro...

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