Calls for Gething to quit from Labour Senedd Members during stormy ‘away day’
Martin Shipton
A number of Labour Senedd Members called on Vaughan Gething to resign during an acrimonious “away day” meeting in Cardiff, we have been told.
Mr Gething’s future hangs in the balance, with bitter divisions between his loyal band of supporters in the Senedd Labour group and those who believe the scandals he is embroiled in will not go away and would prove disastrous for Welsh Labour if he is still First Minister at the time of the next Senedd election in May 2026.
A recent poll undertaken by Beaufort Research for NationCymru showed that nearly 70% of voters in Wales believe he should not have accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his party leadership campaign from a waste company owned by David Neal, a Cardiff businessman who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetland landscape of the Gwent Levels. Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales on Mr Neal’s behalf, asking the environmental regulator to go easy on his company.
Last month the Senedd passed a motion of no confidence in Mr Gething, with two Labour MSs on sick leave and not voting – Delyn MS Hannah Blythyn and Llanelli MS Lee Waters. He nevertheless refused to resign, describing the vote as a “gimmick” organised by the opposition parties.
Despite making significant gains in Wales at the general election, Mr Gething’s approval ratings are low and support for Welsh Labour is lower when it comes to voting intention at a Senedd election. A recent poll put Plaid Cymru just four percentage points behind Labour.
Sacked
This week the focus has been on Mr Gething’s treatment of Ms Blythyn, whom he sacked as a minister after accusing her of passing an incriminating screenshot to NationCymru. The screenshot included a number of iMessages from a ministerial group chat which took place when the Welsh Government was handling the Covid-19 crisis.
In one of his posts to the group chat, Mr Gething announced that he would be deleting messages because they could be captured by a freedom of information (FoI) request. In doing so, he admitted that the messages related to Welsh Government business – otherwise they would not have to be disclosed in response to an FoI request.
The messages were deleted by Mr Gething, despite all users of Welsh Government mobile phones having been told to preserve messages as a legally required record of government business. Later Mr Gething misled the UK Covid Inquiry by stating that he hadn’t deleted messages, but that they had been deleted while his mobile phone was being “refitted” by the Senedd’s IT department.
On Tuesday Ms Blythyn, who has struggled with her mental health since her dismissal, made a personal statement to the Senedd in which she vehemently protested her innocence and insisted she did not pass the screenshot to NationCymru. The following day Mr Gething claimed he had proof that she was responsible for the “leak”, even though he had not ordered a formal Civil Service inquiry overseen by the Senedd’s director of propriety and ethics.
Briefed
Selected journalists were briefed that the screenshot passed to NationCymru could be traced to Ms Blythyn’s phone, although she has not deviated from her strong denial and NationCymru has confirmed that she was not the source of the “leak”.
NationCymru CEO Mark Mansfield has also made the point that the messages on the screenshot passed to us should have been in the public domain anyway. Supporters of Mr Gething, both within and outside government, have been trying to put the focus on Ms Blythyn to distract attention from Mr Gething’s misdeeds.
On Thursday July 11 the 30-strong Labour group – exactly 50% of the Senedd – met at an office block next to Cardiff and Vale College on Dumballs Road, which links the city centre and Cardiff Bay. The meeting was billed as an “away day” aimed at rebuilding the unity of the group following the turmoil of recent months since Mr Gething took over as First Minister from Mark Drakeford.
A Labour source who was aware of what took place at the meeting told NationCymru: “It was acrimonious. People told him to resign. It was a big discussion with no real outcome.
“The group is divided. There’s got to be a way forward. Either Vaughan demonstrates that he can be a leader or he will be forced to resign in the autumn. The crunch will come over the Welsh Government’s budget, if not before. We cannot face an election with him as leader”.
The source added: “There’s no love for NationCymru from his supporters!”
A person who was present at the ‘away day’ meeting said: “Vaughan Gething’s leadership was raised and discussed for two hours. It was an awful experience. The group is dominated by the loudest and weakest members.”
Budget
All three opposition parties have indicated they would not support a Welsh Government budget with Mr Gething as First Minister. This could force the Labour group to remove him and replace him with a new leader.
Earlier another Labour source compared today’s situation with that in 2000, when the National Assembly’s first leader Alun Michael was forced out of office, initially by a vote of no confidence moved by opposition parties, who between them held a majority of the seats, and then by the Labour group, which told Mr Michael they would not re-nominate him, paving the way for Rhodri Morgan to take over as First Minister.
The Labour source said: “Vaughan’s crimes are worse than Alun’s, but the internal opposition to him is far weaker. Although most of the group wants him gone, there’s a degree of inertia about actually making that happen, even though he is damaging both the Welsh Labour brand and the credibility of the Senedd.”
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Not a Tory in sight but the scent of blood is still in their nostrils…
“Although most of the group wants him gone, there’s a degree of inertia about actually making that happen, even though he is damaging both the Welsh Labour brand and the credibility of the Senedd.” …If they can’t even sort this out they don’t deserve my vote. I will remember this fiasco and come 2026 I will vote for a party who is interested in actually doing their job and appears to have the will to do it.
Sadly a big slice of the electorate will not vote at all in 2026. That is a big obstacle to : a)getting the current crop of Labour A.S’s to act with any sense of duty and accountability, and b) turfing them out in 2026 because of their indifferent, compliant attitudes.
Sadly I think that you’re right. I don’t really understand how the new election system will affect our choice of who actually sits in the Senedd either. It’s all quite depressing really.
As well you should remember this in 2026! Their behaviour demonstrates that they are more than happy to put party before country. Their loyalty – first and foremost – is to the UK Labour Party and to Keir Starmer. It’s time the people of Wales stopped thinking of Labour as the answer to everything. Their complacency and taking the electorate for granted is likely contributing to voter disaffection and apathy in this country. If we don’t consider other parties on the left or centre left in Wales, then the likes of Reform will hold sway and we can effectively say… Read more »
I think the arguments about who leaked the messages is a smokescreen. The real issue is that Gething deleted them in the full knowledge that they should not have been wiped and then blatantly lied to Parliament about it.
It’s staggering to see the other Labour MS’s continue to work with and support this man. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Labour have always been tribal and believe in “party before country”.
In the interests of Cymru Wales and our Senedd there must be a new FM. It is not just the deletion of messages on a minister’s iPhone, or the removing of an innocent minister from the cabinet. Then there is the matter of acceptance of a donation from a convicted polluter. This must not continue as it could bring damage to public trust in Cymru governance. Gething became FM only because of a UK trade union rulebook which cast its block vote in opposition to most labour party members. If I were one of those Labour party members in Wales,… Read more »
Clearly the Welsh branch of the Labour Party are totally gutless and naive. Gething is a dead man walking with regard to the leadership role but the LP AM’s do nothing. Hopefully they will all be out at the next Senedd elections.
After 25 years of our one party state Senedd, he is Wales’ best chance of kicking labour out of power here in Wales. Unfortunately he is also ruining the reputation of the Senedd and playing into the hands of his bosses in London who don’t want us to have a parliament anyway.
That’s what I can’t decide on either. Is it better to keep him in to get Labour out (after 100 years!!) or is that just too much of a liability.
Keep him in (although I believe he won’t go anyway).
It seems day after day in Wales the principles of good govt and public service that Starmer has been banging on about are sadly lacking in large parts of the Labour group trying to drown out serious concerns in the Senedd.
Some are getting more vociferous in their support for Gething, I suspect because it is finally dawning on them they have hitched their selves to the wrong wagon train.
While this is going on it gives cover for further erosion of devolution by the Westminster faction.
Gething and Biden. Two leaders who should step down, for different but obvious reasons. Sadly, both will stay and cling on to the detriment of their nations in the months and years ahead.
Fascinating that the pictures of message that were “lost” are not lauded by Mr Gethin and the inquiry immediately updated, but a witch hunt. All these “accidents” with whatsapp across the political parties is all too convenient. Labour off my 2026 voting list till this is sorted and then I need to see some action on this.
(Hey, ARTD, farage, don’t get too enthused, I will never vote for Cons or russian stooges).
He won’t go until he’s forced out. He’s been eyeing this top job for years. It will be a huge massive catastrophic ego blow for him to have to quit. He’s trying to outride the storm I think.
And his colleagues and fellow MSs won’t be the ones forcing him out – that’s for sure.
What a leaky group of backstabbers the Labour Party seems to be.
Governments are quite happy or even to rely on leaks when it suits them.
Backstabbing implies the” stabbing” is done by a person or members of a group for gain.
In this fiasco the “stabbing” looks more like a consequence of exasperation but not so much exasperation as to overcome loyalty to the Labour Party over Cymru and result in a frontal attack.
That is an ultimatum to Gething to leave or be thrown out of office
The Welsh love affair with Labour is very odd, the only suitable analogy is that of an abused spouse who won’t face reality and leave. On every possible metric, Welsh Labour governance over 25 years has been catastrophic.
I just don’t understand it at all. They’ve been an unprecedented failure in Wales and we decide to gift them a majority at every general election regardless.
Continuing to do so will eventually gift victory to the right and those who would erode the Senedd further, unless we change track now.
Electoral map of Wales post GE 2024
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/map-general-election-winners-wales-29451806
It really does put it into perspective, don’t you think?
With my election hat on I’d say Vaughan Gething is an electoral asset to Plaid Cymru. However he is bringing the Senedd into disrepute. That plays into the hands of the anti-Wales chauvinists. The man clearly needs to go.
Who is he going to sack for this leak! Clearly a man with no leadership quality or integrity. Time to resign
Gething is basically now saying that he never said Blythyn leaked the phone image but that she is responsible for what happens with her phone.
Story has been changed by Gething.
As a solicitor he will know how that manoeuvre looks in a court of law or the court of public opinion.
This is rather disgusting behaviour from Mr Gethin, he forged his career on ensuring fairness for employees when at Thompson’s. Now, when he is in control he sacks people without evidence. Tory Wolf in Labour Clothing.
I can’t say I’m surprised about this “inertia” within the Labour group to get him out and that is a failure. We seem to reward failure in Wales time and time again and it can’t continue. Gething only has himself to blame for the wheels coming off so soon. This desperate clinging on just illustrates how egotistical he isn and this is all about him. I can just imagine him saying, “I’ve waited to do this job for so long; it’s not fair I have to give it up.” Ultimately the longer this continues the more the party and the… Read more »
He should be slung out on his earhole. No pussy-footing around…… OUT NOW!!! However, if he was chucked out he would inevitably end up with a very generous payout, a fantastic pension and probably an annual salary for life because he held the post of first minister and we, the mugs, would pay for it. These politicians have it all sewn up for an event such as this.
Come on now Gethin, time is ticking, off you pop. Country first, party, well I do not care
Unlike Westminster Labour, who all my life have been periodically prone to airing visceral disagreements very much in public, Welsh Labour, post-devolution, have been a pretty united bunch. For sure, maybe not in private; but they’ve been pretty good at keeping such dissensions as they might have had firmly ‘in-house’. The one exception that I can recall was in the very earliest days of devolution, when they really didn’t want Alun Michael foisted on them as FM, and they were fairly quickly successful in displacing him. But I don’t think that the party’s outward dedication to unity can be taken… Read more »
That unity has been part of the problem that has affected(infected?) Labour in Wales since the Senedd’s inception, when policy is made in “group” meetings and then sold to electorate by many with less than effective persuasion of both the Assembly and the electorate. The ridicule heaped upon Labour re the 20mph limit and farm support latterly following the Circuit of Wales recently are prime examples of ill-conceived ideas pushed through with unity being held above common sense and above political wind direction. With VG’s situation, the Labour party in the Senedd is now openly ridiculed by most of Wales… Read more »
‘Without an unprecedented 180 degree turn Labour could find themselves behind Reform and Plaid when the votes are allocated in the next Senedd election.’
That seems to me to be at the least a tad plausible, if Mr Gething’s government continues on its present trajectory.
But I don’t think that we’re necessarily at the end of this saga yet. We might glean some idea.as to how the land lies in that respect well before the next Senedd election takes place.