Former Pontypridd MP Kim Howells says Welsh Labour must remove Vaughan Gething as leader

Martin Shipton

One of Wales’ most respected former MPs has called Vaughan Gething “damaged goods” and called for his replacement as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister “sooner rather than later”.

Mr Gething has been mired in controversy since NationCymru revealed that he had accepted donations totalling £200,000 from a convicted criminal.

Dr Kim Howells, who was the Labour MP for Pontypridd from 1989 until 2010 and held a number of ministerial posts in the UK Government including at the Foreign Office, made the comment on BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement programme.

Addressing Dr Howells, presenter Vaughan Roderick said: “You’ve had decades of experience of elections. For Welsh Labour, the results in terms of seats were very good, but in terms of vote share was pretty poor – and vote share is vital when it comes to the next Senedd election because [the allocation of seats is] fully proportional. Does Welsh Labour need to change its leader? I mean, is Vaughan Gething, newly elected as he is, already damaged goods?”

‘Determination’

Dr Howells responded: “He is damaged goods and Welsh Labour needs to change its leader sooner rather than later. The problem is, they’ve got to find somebody to replace him, and to do that they’ve got to show some spine and some determination, and they’ve got to get on with it.

“I spoke to other former MPs in the run-up to this election, all of them from Wales. All of them said to me, if this had been the Senedd elections, we’d have lost them.”

Roderick said: “Some people even think Labour would have come third.”

Dr Howells said: “There’s a very good chance of that, I think. There’s a great deal of disillusionment out there about the performance of Labour in the Senedd, and they need to get a grip.”

Reacting to Dr Howells’ comments, a Labour insider said: “It’s very significant that someone of Kim Howells’ stature, who could by no means be described as on the left of the party, is coming out so strongly about the need to remove Vaughan Gething. He’s the sort of person you’d expect in normal circumstances to be supporting Vaughan, because they’re both from the same wing of the party. But quite rightly he has recognised the danger Vaughan Gething poses to the party from an electoral point of view.”

Reform UK

Earlier in the BBC interview, Dr Howells expressed concern about the rise of Reform UK and the fracturing of the general election vote which enabled Labour to win a landslide victory with a relatively low level of support.

He said: “I can’t remember an outcome like this. I don’t think there ever has been an outcome like this. If you’d have asked me three or four years ago, would Reform come second in so many seats in Wales, I’d have said this is fantasy.

2But it isn’t fantasy. It’s here and now. They almost won Llanelli. They came second in so many Valleys seats. North Wales saw a big Reform vote. And if you try and pick that apart, I suspect that there are certain issues which are the same right across Britain that worry people – and one of them is immigration.

“Nobody wants to talk about it. In the same way, nobody wants to mention the fact that there are these new sectarian groupings, which could be very damaging to all political parties. A Muslim vote perhaps – look at the way they won these seats, standing up for Gaza, for a foreign affairs issue. It is quite extraordinary, I think, and very different from anything we’ve known before.”

Stradey Park Hotel

Roderick said: “It’s odd, isn’t it? Llanelli had particular circumstances surrounding the Stradey Park Hotel [where the Home Office had a plan, now abandoned, to house asylum seekers] But a lot of the constituencies where Reform did well don’t have many brown faces, if we put it that way.”

Dr Howells said: “Look at Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr, Aberdare. These have probably got the lowest number of people living in those constituencies who weren’t born there. These are people who’ve got a very, very low percentage of immigrants from anywhere, even from England.

“I think one of the great problems with political parties these days is that they’re terrified about uttering certain words. They don’t want to raise certain subjects. They’re constantly walking on broken eggs. They’re frightened of trying to face head-on issues like immigration.

“And it’s not going to go away. I can’t see anybody stopping small boats. I can’t see Europe in general trying to do anything that’s going to be effective to stop immigration from Africa, Asia and from South America. These are massive problems. And by the way, look at the way Europe is turning. Look at the rightward shift of politics in Europe. This is going to take some adapting to, believe me.”

Farage

Dr Howells said it would be wrong to downplay the appeal of Nigel Farage: “He’s a sharp cookie, by the way. Don’t ever underrate this guy. He’s a very effective speaker, he’s got a presence, the media love interviewing him. He’s learnt a lot – he’s learnt from his friend Trump in America. With things standing as they are at the moment, it looks as if Trump is going to get re-elected, unless the Democrats regain some sanity and get rid of Biden.

“That kind of international mood is something which is going to affect British politics – and in David Lammy I’m not sure we’ve got the sharpest tool in the box as Foreign Secretary to handle all of that. I think it’s a bad appointment. I think he’s said so many things about various right-wing leaders in Europe and Trump in America. We’ve got to live with these people, and like it or not politics is about compromise, and it’s about skills in negotiation – and somehow, we’ve got to learn to live in that new world. Labour’s got to learn pretty fast, I think.”