Nigel Farage's Trump 'jolly' attacked by Carwyn Jones

Nigel Farage had helped Donald Trump during his election campaign

First Minister Carwyn Jones has attacked UKIP interim leader Nigel Farage's decision to go to the US to meet Donald Trump.

Mr Farage met the president-elect at Trump Tower on Saturday.

Mr Jones said the MEP should have been at UK Remembrance Sunday events rather than "on a jolly", calling him a "grinning poppy-less popinjay in a gold lift".

A UKIP spokesman described Mr Jones's comments as "look-at-me vapourings".

Mr Farage is the first UK politician to meet Donald Trump following the shock election victory for the former reality-TV star.

He had previously appeared on the campaign trail for the Republican candidate.

Mr Jones said: "This weekend when people from every walk of life joined to commemorate our war dead in services around the country, there was one conspicuous absence. Nigel Farage.

"You don't get to appropriate the Battle of Britain in your campaign literature, only to prioritise transatlantic photo-ops a few months later.

"Mr Farage likes to play by a different set of rules, this much is true. But in what universe do we let go, without comment or censure, the pictures of this grinning poppy-less popinjay in a gold lift with Donald Trump?"

Carwyn Jones and Nigel Farage debated the UK's role in Europe in January

Mr Jones said the UKIP interim leader "made a choice between two things this weekend. A choice between standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow Brits in solemn remembrance, or to go on a jolly to the States to pick up a bit of reflected glory."

A UKIP spokesman said: "Mr Jones is probably unaware that in the US, the 11th is the day of commemoration.

"For Mr Farage to have worn a poppy would have been an egregious example of virtue signalling. Something normal for the likes of Mr Jones, but an anathema to Mr Farage.

"Mr Jones' statement reads more like the 'look-at-me' vapourings of the Lib Dems than the words of a serious man.

"It's sad to see how far the Labour Party has fallen."

In January - five months before the referendum vote for Brexit - Mr Jones and Mr Farage clashed in a head-to-head debate in Cardiff about the value of the UK's membership of the European Union.