It’s been a turbulent morning in Wales. First, four ministers from the Labour group quit over growing frustration at their scandal-ridden party leader Vaughan Gething. That had the intended effect. Gething has announced he will be stepping down as First Minister – making him the shortest-serving FM the country has seen, serving in the post for a mere 118 days.
In a statement released this morning, Gething said that he had hoped the summer break would have provided a ‘period of reflection, rebuilding and renewal’ under his leadership, but after this morning’s intervention from his former ministers he admitted: ‘I recognise now that this is not possible.’
Gething’s time in the top job was tainted from the start after the former leadership contender accepted a £200,000 donation from David Neal, a donor who has previously twice been convicted of environmental offences. Despite facing warnings at the time from Labour figures over the cash, Gething accepted the payment, which accounted for around 80 per cent of his overall donations.
The former FM was hit by further scandal when rumours about the fate of his Covid WhatsApp messages began to build. It emerged that Gething – who was health secretary during the pandemic – had admitted to ministers that he was routinely deleting messages from a group chat, before warning his colleagues that retained exchanges could be revealed via Freedom of Information requests. The outgoing leader later denied that he had deleted relevant texts from his phone and sacked his minister Hannah Blythyn, alleging she had leaked messages to the media – before Welsh news site Nation.Cymru revealed that Blythyn had not been their source.
Then it went from bad to worse: Labour’s coalition partners Plaid Cymru pulled out of the co-operation agreement. Just weeks later, and a mere 77 days into his leadership, Gething went on to lose a vote of no confidence.
In a nod to the scandals that have dogged his premiership, Gething remains insistent that ‘in 11 years as a Minister, I have never ever made a decision for personal gain. I have never ever misused or abused my ministerial responsibilities. My integrity matters. I have not compromised it.’ Pointing to negative media coverage he received in the top job, he said: ‘A growing assertion that some kind of wrongdoing has taken place has been pernicious, politically motivated and patently untrue… I regret that the burden of proof is no longer an important commodity in the language of our politics. I do hope that can change.’
Gething made history as Wales’s first black First Minister. But serving for just 118 days before announcing his resignation, the shortest serving Labour leader will be remembered for breaking another record that he may not be quite so proud of. Many in Gething’s party will be hoping this signals an end to the turbulence that has affected their party for much of the year – but not even a fortnight into Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership, this is a blow for the Labour party.
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