Top Labour figure close to Starmer decided not to accept what’s left of Gething’s ‘dodgy donation’

Martin Shipton

One of UK Labour’s top officials made the decision that the party would not accept an unspent amount of more than £30,000 from Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign, we have been told.

Acting with the authority of Sir Keir Starmer, the party’s director of governance and legal Andrew Whyte decided that Labour’s reputation would be tainted if it took cash that Mr Gething had accepted from a convicted criminal. Mr Whyte has a particular expertise in making judgments about the propriety of donations and was previously a senior adviser at the Electoral Commission,

NationCymru revealed that businessman David Neal, who has previously received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in a conservation area, donated £200,000 to Mr Gething’s leadership campaign.

‘Progressive’ causes

Earlier this week it was announced that UK Labour would not accept the £31,600 that remains in Mr Gething’s campaign account. Instead it will be donated to “progressive” causes.

Senior Welsh Labour politicians have made contradictory statements about the decision.

Ken Skates, who co-chaired Mr Gething’s campaign and is now the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport, was asked on BBC Wales Live why Labour didn’t want to accept the money that was left.

He said: “I should be absolutely clear on this, Vaughan asked the Labour Party to pass the remaining donation on to progressive causes. This was not a case of the party saying ‘we don’t want the money’.

“It was a direct result of Vaughan, who is passionate about a wider participation in politics and driving diversity, requesting that that money should be utilised to bring more minority ethnic people into politics, to make it a safer place for women to be in politics, and it’s now a matter for the Welsh Executive Committee [of the Labour Party].

Asked whether the Labour Party had refused the excess money, Mr Skates said: “They did not refuse the money.” Asked whether Mr Gething’s campaign now regretted taking the money, Mr Skates said: “Donations have to be made in order to have elections of any type. Whether we have donations reform is something we need to consider . As co-chair of the campaign I was immensely proud of the work that we did with Vaughan as part of a great team. I’m proud that Vaughan is the First Minister of Wales and that he’s made history as the first leader of a European country who is Black.”

Choice

However, appearing on the same programme, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Dame Nia Griffith, the MP for Llanelli, took another view. Asked whether Mr Gething represented a “blueprint” for what a Labour-run Britain would be like, given that there was a cloud over him because of the donations, Dame Nia said: “I think people see this very much as a race between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak – they understand that this is the choice you’ve got for Prime Minister of the UK. We’ll be focussing on that and I’m sure the voters will understand that.”

Asked whether she was glad that Labour was not taking the money left over from Mr Gething’s campaign, Dame Nia said: “Yes, well we’re very clear about that. We’re definitely not going to touch it.”

Mike Payne, the former political officer of the GMB union in Wales is Treasurer of the UK Labour Party. We asked him to explain the logistics of how the leftover money from Mr Gething’s campaign would get to the “progressive causes”, and in particular whether it would pass through UK Labour’s bank account.

Mr Payne did not respond.

Damaging

A senior Labour source told us: “The fact is that the decision not to accept the money was made by Andrew Whyte. The party is aware that the whole story around Vaughan Gething accepting money from a convicted polluter is damaging and doesn’t want to be tainted with it. They’d like the story to be closed down and think that refusing to accept the money will achieve that.

“The fact is, however, that Vaughan accepted the money in the first place and damage has been done.

“In the immediate aftermath of his election as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister, the UK party saw Vaughan as a considerable asset. That’s no longer the case.

“It is noteworthy that in the campaign video promoting Keir Starmer that was released soon after the general election was called, Vaughan appears for around half a second – considerably less than the appearance of Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader.

“The contrast is telling, because after all Vaughan is the First Minister of Wales while Anas is only the opposition leader in Scotland. Vaughan certainly won’t be playing nearly as prominent a role in the party’s general election campaign as was originally intended.”