A First Minister on the ropes, facing questions about his judgement? No, it’s not hapless Hamza Yousaf this time. Instead, the latest legislator in the firing line is none other than Vaughan Gething, the recently-selected head of the Welsh government at Cardiff Bay. Gething has been in the job for less than six weeks but is already facing a storm of criticism about the way in which he got it.
The former economy minister narrowly triumphed in last month’s Labour leadership contest by 51.7 per cent of the vote to Jeremy Miles’ 48.3 per cent. But Gething’s subsequent tenure has been dominated by questions about the £200,000 his campaign accepted from a company whose owner was twice convicted of environmental offences. David Neal of the firm Dauson Environmental Group was given a suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste on a conservation site. Four years later he was prosecuted again for not removing it.
Since news of the £200,000 donation broke, Nation.Cymru has revealed that Dauson Environmental Group Ltd last year owed £400,000 to the Development Bank of Wales, a bank wholly owned by the Welsh Government. That loan was awarded to the company when – you guessed it – Vaughan Gething was economy minister. In that role, Gething also lobbied Natural Resources Wales on behalf of Dauson, encouraging it to reconsider its call for work a DEG site to be paused. Gething insists that there is ‘no conflict of interest’ and that all rules have been followed.
But that blanket insistence has, unsurprisingly, not stopped questions from being asked in the Senedd, amid reports that Gething’s Welsh Labour group is split over the matter. Indeed, the real surprise at last First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday was not that he faced hostile questions from both the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru but rather the total lack of vocal support from Gething’s own Members of the Senedd. The Welsh Conservatives’ motion demanding an investigation will be debated in the Senedd on Wednesday. Someone get the popcorn in…
With the crucial vote now fast approaching, Gething will just be hoping he fares better than poor hapless Humza north of the border.
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