2024: An extraordinary year for Welsh politics

Emily Price

With three first ministers, two prime ministers, a general election, Labour infighting, Conservative backstabbing, a Lib Dem scandal and the downfall of a Welsh Tory leader, 2024 was an extraordinary year in Welsh politics.

Here’s a look back at some of the most significant stories of 2024…

The year began with the promise of a brand new first minister for Wales following Mark Drakeford’s announcement of his plans to step down in December 2023 after five years in the job.

News that the titan of Welsh politics would resign sparked a leadership contest that marked the beginning of a chaotic year for Labour in the Senedd.

Stitch up

In January, the leadership contest was in full swing with ministers Jeremy Miles and Vaughan Gething competing for the top job.

Miles condemned the contest as a stitch up after he was deprived of the nomination of Wales’ second largest trade union.

He was ineligible for Unite’s endorsement because of a recently introduced rule that Labour politicians who had not acted as lay officials could not receive the union’s support.

As a result, Miles was disqualified and the union’s nomination was given to his rival, Gething.

Bombshell

Just a few weeks later, Nation.Cymru dropped a bombshell revealing that Gething’s election campaign had been bankrolled by a man who was given a suspended jail sentence for fly tipping.

Nevertheless, on March 16, Gething made history by becoming Wales’ first Black leader after narrowly winning the election with 51.7% of the vote.

But the donations scandal showed now signs of abating with calls for the cash to be returned rejected by the new leader who said the rules had been followed “scrupulously”.

Some of Gething’s comms team held a crisis meeting at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff where a member of the public very kindly recorded the entire tête-à-tête on their phone for Nation.Cymru.

Rocky

The beginning of Gething’s rocky reign coincided with Lee Waters’ return to the Labour back benches.

The former transport minister was pivotal in implementing Wales’ controversial  20mph default speed limit.

Waters was relentlessly harassed online by opposers of the road regulation which in recent months has been proven to save lives.

Row

His final session answering questions as a minister ended in a blazing row with his shadow rival Natasha Asghar.

The relationship between the pair has continued to be contentious with Asghar recently photographed with her arm around the neck of a crude effigy of the former minister.

Plaid Cymru also deserves in nod in March, with 28-year-old Carmen Smith becoming the youngest ever life peer to be introduced to the House of Lords.

By the start of May, politicians in the Senedd took part in a debate which saw one MS deliver what I think is one of the best one liners of 2024.

During a motion on Gething’s donations scandal, Labour’s Hefin David claimed the new FM was being pursued by the press too vigorously.

Incase anyone missed it – here’s the best of Alun Davies during yesterday’s debates on donations to the FM’s leadership campaign… pic.twitter.com/arIyiTklLn

— Emily Price (@EPriceJourno) May 2, 2024

Dig

David told the Chamber: “This idea that the more you dig the more you find – actually the more you dig, the less you find.”

Whilst making the statement, Alun Davies could be seen gurning on Senedd cameras – Insiders told me the pair had bickered over a committee chair nomination.

But it turned out that David was wrong about digging, because less than a week later, Welsh Labour was in the grip of another scandal after Nation.Cymru published leaked Covid era messages from a ministerial group chat.

Turmoil

The text messages showed government ministers poking fun at back bencher before former health minister Gething told the group he would delete messages because they could be captured by Freedom of Information legislation.

Gething later faced accusations that he had misled the UK Covid Inquiry over how the Welsh Government retained information during the pandemic.

By mid May, the government was in turmoil after the FM sacked one his newly installed junior ministers – Hannah Blythyn – after accusing her of  being Nation.Cymru’s source.

The ever growing list of controversies saw a shock announcement from Plaid Cymru when leader Rhun ap Iorwerth ended the party’s co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government.

Rain

Also in May, Senedd reform cleared its final hurdle after landmark legislation to increase the size of the parliament and change its voting system was passed in some of the most significant reforms to democracy in Wales since the creation of the Senedd in 1999.

The spring marked big changes for Wales and the wider UK as the former Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a General Election in the tipping down rain.

As the soggy PM faced reporters, ‘Things can only get better’ by D:Ream was blasted from speakers set up by a protester on the other side of Downing Street’s gates.

Embarrassing

In early June, Gething was still on shaky ground, losing a vote of no confidence in a Tory motion.

It was highly embarrassing for the Labour leader given that he lost by two votes, after two of his colleagues – Hannah Blythyn and Lee Waters – did not take part.

June also saw the much admired socialist Beth Winter lose the right to stand as a Labour candidate in a new Parliamentary seat.

The former Cynon Valley MP quit the party several months later after accusing Labour of pursuing an authoritarian political agenda.

In early July, UK Labour secured a landslide General Election victory which saw the Conservatives lose all their MPs in Wales – including the former Welsh Secretary David TC Davies.

Whilst Sir Keir Starmer got comfortable in Downing Street, the month marked the beginning of further dodgy territory for Labour in the Senedd.

Sacked minister Hannah Blythyn returned to the Chamber after taking time off for her mental health.

Applause

She received a round of applause from MSs as she maintained that she did not brief the press on Gething’s Covid messages.

Later that month, in difficult to watch Senedd scenes, Blythyn could be seen shaking her head behind the FM whilst he defended sacking her.

Out of concern for Ms Blythyn’s wellbeing, Nation.Cymru took the unprecedented step of revealing that she was not the source of our story.

Protecting sources is of the utmost importance to journalists – but allowing innocent individuals to take the blame for something they haven’t done, is not.

I’ll always believe that Nation.Cymru made the right decision that day.

Shortly after our revelation, four ministers of Gething’s government  sensationally quit their posts and called on the first minister to stand down.

On July 16, Gething resigned after only after only 118 days in the top job. He has since joined he Labour backbench and plans to leave the Welsh Parliament at the next election.

Shock

Nation.Cyrmu’s Martin Shipton was later crowned journalist of the year for his coverage of the infighting and scandals surrounding Gething’s short tenure.

In August, Eluned Morgan was elected unopposed as Wales’ first female first minister.

Her coronation saw the shock return of former FM Mark Drakeford in a key government position as health secretary.

He was later appointed minister for finance and Welsh language in a cabinet reshuffle.

And so began the Senedd’s summer recess – a quiet time for MSs to return to their constituencies, reflect on their political careers and take a breather.

That is of course unless you are the leader of the opposition – Andrew RT Davies.

Rogue

The farmer come politician ignited a simmering revolt amongst his shadow cabinet after going rogue on his social media channels one time too many.

During a time when far right riots were breaking out across England following the tragic dance class murders, Davies made a series of claims about children in Welsh schools being forced to eat Halal meat.

The Muslim Council of Wales very bravely called out the Tory leader, branding him a “Islamophic race baiter“.

The Senedd Conservatives struggled to rub off accusations of racism when Nation.Cymru revealed that a member of the shadow cabinet had sent a highly offensive text message.

Laura Anne Jones had described the Chinese owners of TikTok as “chinky spies” whilst joshing with her team in a WhatsApp group chat.

She has since apologised – but remains under investigation by the standards commissioner for other matters.

Davies launched himself into a fresh row when he constructed a home made ballot to canvass the public on whether they thought the Senedd should be abolished.

It triggered some grass roots members to agitate for the party to change its pro-devolution stance.

Coup

Senior Tory figures were clearly getting fed up with Davies’ online mischief and the rumblings of a coup began to gain traction.

But by the time the summer recess ended, the heat had gone out of the situation and the mutiny appeared to abate.

As politicians returned to Cardiff Bay in September – shadow transport minister and 20mph diva, Natasha Asghar, received a smack on the wrist from the standards commissioner for describing the speed limit as a “blanket” policy.

She later posed with blankets and anti-20mph protesters on the steps of the Senedd in defiance.

October then brought me what was by far the most entertaining story I wrote all year.

A report was published by the Senedd outlining that a mystery MS had been investigated by the standards commissioner after they left a cutting review about a pair of sherry glasses they bought on eBay for £9.99.

A very helpful source told me the MS in question was Janet Finch Saunders – a political character who is often comedy gold for journalists.

Smashed

The complaint was rightly thrown out – and the Tory MS made a good point about how the probe was a “waste of tax payers money”.

Writing the story made me chuckle when I found out that one of the bargain sherry glasses was smashed before the investigation was even over.

On Halloween, Andrew RT Davies was also placed on the naughty step by the standards commissioner for his use of the word “blanket” to describe the 20mph default speed limit.

In mid November, the only Liberal Democrat in the Senedd, Jane Dodds, found herself at the centre of a scandal.

Nation.Cymru revealed how the mid and west Wales MS had failed for months to arrange a meeting involving the sexual abuse of a young man by a Bishop when she worked as a senior manager in the Church of England.

Gaffe-prone

Despite calls by the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey for Dodds to step down, she has remained in her post as Welsh leader.

At the end of November, Nation.Cymru was pre-warned that Tory MSs planned to topple their gaff-prone leader, Andrew RT Davies.

I wrote the story in advance and left it sitting in the system ready for the moment the Tory leader was told his time was up.

But on the day the coup was scheduled to take place – anonymous tip-offs flooded my inbox. It was clear the story was about to break – if not by us, but by another outlet.

Pressing publish was like throwing a grenade into social media, then stepping back as political commentators scrambled to find out what was going on.

Woke

Davies did his best to cling on, calling for a confidence vote – which he won.

But seven of his MSs threatened to resign from their shadow cabinet roles unless he threw in the towel.

He stepped down as leader at the start of December and has since continued to push culture war talking points and woke issues on social media.

Bizarrely, he compared his party’s disdain for his leadership to breakfast preferences.

Davies’ chief whip, Darren Millar, was elected unopposed after several MSs feared a drawn out leadership race would see the former leader stay in position for many more weeks.

2025

Looking ahead, 2025 could be a critical year for politicians in Wales in the run up to the  next Senedd election which will see an expanded parliament, a new voting system and new constituencies.

Will Welsh Labour’s fortunes be tied to the that of the increasingly unpopular UK Government?

Will the Tories be able to see off the threat of Reform and not suffer the same wipeout as their MPs in the General Election?

Will Jane Dodds cut a deal with Welsh Labour as the government attempts to pass Wales’ budget?

Plaid Cymru made it through 2024 without any major drama’s and would have been buoyed by the ITV poll which put them in first place for the 2026 election.

But a recent poll by Nation.Cymru saw the party crash to third place –  will they now look at what inroads they can make with sceptical voters in south east Wales?

There’s a lot to play for – here’s hoping for an equally busy political year.

A quick thank you to all of the anonymous sources that supported my work and trusted me with inside details this year – I couldn’t have done it without you.