Gething’s short tenure as Welsh leader marked by scandal

Vaughan Gething’s short reign as First Minister of Wales has ended in scandal.

Questions over a £200,000 donation to his Labour leadership campaign have dogged him since he became First Minister in March.

A row over a leaked phone message which led to him sacking one of his ministers and Plaid Cymru’s withdrawal of support for his Government added to the sense of chaos.

The First Minister has been under pressure over a donation from the Dauson Environmental Group, which is owned by David Neal, who has previously been convicted of environmental offences.

There have also been concerns about a possible conflict of interest in the money coming from a company which was loaned £400,000 by the Welsh government-owned, Development Bank of Wales (DBW).

The loan from the DBW was given to Neal Soil Suppliers – a subsidiary of Dauson – in 2023 to help purchase a solar farm, at a time when Mr Gething was economy minister.

Mr Gething has always insisted that he cannot take any decision relating to Dauson – which is based in his constituency – and the DBW is entirely independent of ministers.

But Plaid cited the donation as one of the reasons for ending its co-operation agreement in the Senedd with the Welsh Labour administration.

Labour had 30 seats of the 60 seats in Cardiff Bay following the 2021 election and struck a deal with Plaid to ensure a majority.

Mr Gething’s dismissal of minister for social partnership, Hannah Blythyn, following the leak of a phone message to the media was also highlighted by Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth in his decision to end the agreement with Labour.

Ms Blythyn strongly denied leaking anything and said she was “deeply shocked” at her dismissal.

The First Minister’s decision followed a report on the Nation.Cymru news website which featured a message posted to a ministerial group chat in August 2020 by Mr Gething, stating that he was “deleting the messages in this group”.

He said the leaked message was from a section of an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and related to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group.

Mr Gething previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him, but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.

Mr Gething denied the leaked message contradicted the evidence he had given to the inquiry, adding it did not relate to pandemic decision-making but “comments that colleagues make to and about each other”.

Mr Gething said he would quit as Welsh First Minister on Tuesday after four members of his government resigned and demanded he left office.

He said he recognised that “rebuilding and renewal” was “not possible” under his leadership but said allegations of wrongdoing on his part were “pernicious, politically motivated and patently untrue”.

Mr Gething became First Minister after beating his only rival, the education minister Jeremy Miles, in the Labour leadership election following Mark Drakeford’s decision to stand down.

Mr Miles won more nominations from his colleagues in Cardiff Bay, but Mr Gething triumphed by securing 51.7% of the votes cast in the election.

Mr Gething became the first black leader of a European country, which he described as “a matter of pride for a modern Wales but also a daunting responsibility for me – and one that I do not take lightly”.

He joined the Labour Party at 17 to help campaign in the 1992 elections, has been in the Senedd since 2011 and in the cabinet since 2016.

He rose to prominence as health minister throughout the Covid pandemic, a post he held from 2016 to 2021, before becoming economy minister.

Mr Gething was born in Zambia in 1974, where his father, a Welsh vet from Ogmore-by-Sea in Glamorgan, met his mother, a chicken farmer.

He has spoken openly about his experiences of prejudice and said in his leadership campaign he did not want anyone in Wales to feel that way.

When he was two, his family moved to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, where his father was due to start a new job, but the offer was withdrawn when he arrived with a black family.

After his father lost his job in Abergavenny, the family moved to Dorset in England.

Mr Gething later studied law at Aberystwyth University and unsuccessfully stood for the Mid and West Wales seat at the first National Assembly elections in 1999, before becoming councillor for the Butetown area of Cardiff in 2004.

He stood for the Senedd elections again in 2011, when he successfully took the Cardiff South and Penarth Seat.

He previously ran for the Labour leadership and first minister position in 2018, when he lost to Mr Drakeford.