pray in aid sth

[Humble]

Hi,
I do not understand the phrase:
1. So myopic was the foreign secretary's view that she prayed in aid an opinion poll from Basra which told us that the people had every confidence in the police …
2. … she prayed in aid [appealed to] a grant to the youth parliament in Bahrain.
3. The foreign secretary prayed in aid the Iraqi government …

Thanks for your help.

[Anglika]

It looks from your examples as if it means "used as supporting evidence" or "used to support an argument"

[Humble]

Thank you vy much, Anglika,
It fits the contexts to a T. Anyway the phrase is very unusual, I guess it’s rather formal.