Darren Millar has been linked to controversial preachers. (Matthew Horwood/Getty)
Conservative general election candidate Darren Millar has been found to have links to pastors accused of homophobia and Islamophobia.
Millar, currently a member of the Welsh Parliament, has been selected by the Conservative Party as its parliamentary candidate for the new seat of Clwyd North, in North Wales.
According to the BBC, Millar has in the past attracted criticism for associating with Yang Tuck Yoong, a senior pastor in the Pentecostal Cornerstone Community Church who has described homosexuality as an “abomination” and a “sin”.
In 2013, Yoong was reported to police for saying in a sermon that homosexuality “is far more rampant, militant and organised than most of us actually believe”.
In 2019, Millar was found to have financial links to Yoong’s church through the charity the Evan Roberts Institute, of which he is a trustee.
Recent accounts show the charity continues to lease a chapel, bought in 2014, to the Cornerstone Community Church.
Millar, however, has said he does not endorse Yoong’s views and told the BBC: “No one should be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or religious beliefs.”
Video footage of the opening of Yoong’s Bible College of Wales in 2015 was also shared with the BBC, with Millar seen alongside two other controversial preachers: Lou Engle and Dutch Sheets.
Engle allegedly told a conference in Singapore in 2018 – hosted by the Cornerstone Community Church – that Muslim populations were “taking over” southern Spain and he had a dream where he would “raise up the church all over Spain to push back a new modern Muslim movement”.
Police in Singapore launched an investigation and Yoong later apologised to Muslim leaders for Engle’s comments.
Engle has also called for “martyrs” to stop the “homosexual agenda”, the Huff Post reported in 2010.
Sheets believes America will experience a “third great awakening and turn back to her God-given destiny” and has previously said the US must “refuse to give this nation to demons” such as “Hinduism”. He also said “Christianity will invade Islam”.
A Conservative spokesperson told the BBC: “The party does not condone homophobia or discrimination of any sort. Mr Millar has been clear that he does not share the views of these individuals.”
So far, five other candidates are known to be standing in Clwyd North. They are: Gill German (Labour), Martyn James Hogg (Green), Jamie Orange (Reform UK). Paul Rowlinson (Plaid Cymru) and David Wilkins (Liberal Democrats).