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The extraordinary resignation of controversial First Minister of Wales (FMW) Vaughan Gething was described in a UK newspaper yesterday, as “chaos”, “mayhem”, and a story of “backstabbing”.
The Sunday Times (ST) added: “Gething angrily succumbed to a scandal about a campaign donation from a businessman whose firm had been convicted for illegal dumping”.
This is a reference to the disturbing events which brought down Mr Gething on Tuesday. He has said he regrets the “impact”of his decision to take £200,000 from the company owned by the man convicted of illegal dumping, but at the same time appeared to blame the way this issue has been reported by the media.
Welsh Government (WG) ministers Mick Antoniw, Julie James, Lesley Griffiths joined Jeremy Miles in leaving their positions immediately before Mr Gething’s departure, citing a lack of confidence in him, who lost a no-confidence vote less than 12 weeks after taking office, following a series of scandals that called into question his judgement and transparency.
This was on June 5, but until Tuesday Mr Gething had clung on, indeed campaigned for Labour in the General Election (GE).
In holding the media responsible for what has happened, his problematic relationship with journalists has been highlighted.
In August 2017, Mr Gething walked away in the middle of an interview on ITV Wales, when questioned by journalist James Crichton-Smith over his decision not to hold a public inquiry into Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMUHB), following allegations that an employee had sexually assaulted vulnerable patients.
He was in tears before the confidence vote was held in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC) last month, and commentators said they had never seen anything like it.
It was only in March that Mr Gething had made history when he became the first black leader of any European country (succeeding Mark Drakeford) as the FMW, yet after a succession of controversies it seemed that MSs (Members of the Senedd) had had enough.
The main issue (although certainly not the only one), has been his connection to the man with a dubious past.
There have been months of rows over the donations to Mr Gething’s leadership campaign from the company owned by the person previously convicted of environmental offences. The firm is owned by David John Neal, who was given suspended sentences in 2013 for the illegal dumping of waste, and in 2017 for not cleaning it up. It emerged during the recent leadership contest that Mr Gething had lobbied on behalf of one of Mr Neal’s companies, before his first run in 2018.
In a separate row, Mr Gething found himself having to defend a message he sent during the pandemic, where the then-health minister told colleagues he was deleting texts from a ministerial group chat.
He later sacked Hannah Blythyn, alleging she was the source of a leak to Nation.Cymru (NC) (which, perhaps ironically in the circumstances, is partly funded by the WG meaning that its journalism is compromised).
Opposition parties demanded evidence, which Mr Gething has declined to provide.
Two MSs were ‘off sick’ during the no-confidence vote, and this would not have been unhelpful to his opponents.
They were Ms Blythyn herself, and Lee Waters, the former transport minister who had previously called for the donations at the centre of the main scandal to be returned.
Mr Gething’s resignation has precipitated an extraordinary civil war within Welsh Labour (WL).
Several politicians have now rushed to Mr Gething’s side, while others have said he is tarnished by what has happened.
One of those in Mr Gething’s camp seems to be former First Secretary Alun Michael, who led the Labour administration in what was then the Welsh Assembly from 1999 to 2000.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight: “A lot of people are very angry and frustrated about the fact that Vaughan has been in effect forced out”.
But Mr Michael is himself a controversial figure, who was accused of being ‘too close to the police’ when he was South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), and gave apparently misleading information after a major incident.
Following a riot in the Ely area of Cardiff, he had said that rumours the deaths of two youngsters which provoked it had come after a police chase, were ‘not true’.
However footage later emerged which contradicted this amazing statement.
It showed a police van on a road shortly after two teenagers, who later died, had come through frame, riding on an e-bike, and South Wales Police (SWP) later confirmed that police had indeed been following the youths.
15 year old Harvey Evans, and Kyrees Sullivan, who was just 16, were killed before the violence, in which several police officers were injured and 27 people were arrested.
Mr Miles has been touted as a possible successor as FMW, but his role in the controversy makes him a problematic figure for those backing Mr Gething.
One supporter of Mr Gething’s said Mr Miles could not unite the party and there was “a very strong feeling that the person who is associated with a bloodied knife cannot claim the crown”.
It was added: “I’m really worried about what this says to the world, to people in the United Kingdom and especially in Wales who are not white. It looks like a bunch of people have drawn daggers and knifed Vaughan without giving him a chance. I do find that really difficult to deal with.”
But a backer of Mr Miles said: “The people who did their best to block Jeremy last time are up to their old tricks, it seems. Let the members decide”.
A separate supporter of Mr Miles has also hit back and said it was not “credible” for Mr Gething to carry on through the Summer as he no longer had the support of “the group, cabinet or Senedd.
“That can’t be shrugged off and major decisions continued under a set of caretaker ministers as if the political geography hasn’t altered.”
It can’t be shrugged off either that the image of Wales is now one of “chaos”, “mayhem”, and a story of “backstabbing”…
The memories of Phil’s, decades-long award-winning career in journalism (when commenting on major political stories was always paramount), as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – even as he controversially announced his right wing running mate with bandaged ear, Donald Trump wheeled out the cliché that the charges against him amounted to a ‘witch-hunt’, but during 23 years with the BBC, and 40 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon) this tired phrase was always studiously avoided by our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry.
