Gething loses cool during Senedd committee probe
Emily Price
First Minister Vaughan Gething lost his cool during a Senedd committee probe on Friday (12 July) where he was quizzed over the sacking of a member of his cabinet.
Responding to questions from opposition politicians on the evidence used to dismiss former social partnership minister Hannah Blythyn, the embattled FM appeared visibly angry.
Ms Blythyn was signed off work with acute anxiety after being dismissed by the First Minister for allegedly leaking a screen grab to Nation.Cymru which revealed he had told a Covid era ministerial group chat that he was deleting messages.
She returned to the Senedd on Tuesday (July 9) where she gave an emotional personal statement to the Chamber maintaining her innocence.
The conflicting accounts prompted the Welsh Conservatives to table a topical question calling for the FM to provide evidence of Ms Blythyn’s wrong doing.
On Wednesday (July 10) she could be seen on Senedd TV cameras shaking her head and mouthing “no” whilst Mr Gething told politicians in the Chamber the messages could only have come from her phone.
However, on Thursday, Nation.Cymru took the extraordinary step of confirming Ms Blythyn was not the source of leaked messages.
It prompted fresh calls from opposition politicians and members of his own party for the First Minister to resign.
Quizzed
The issue shows no signs of going away, with more questions put to him during the Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister.
The cross party committee was was created to hold the First Minister to account for his government’s performance on behalf of the people of Wales.
Tory MS Russell George asked Mr Gething for his reaction to Nation.Cymru’s unprecedented statement.
Mr Gething said: “After Hannah made her statement on Tuesday, she made it clear that she did not want other people speaking for her, we then had an afternoon of men speaking for her – I think that’s difficult.
“I’ve never tried to claim that Hannah Blythyn directly contacted Nation.Cymru. I’m very clear that the evidence I had confirmed that a photograph of her phone was provided to Nation.Cymru. Ministers are responsible for their own data.”
The screen grab revealed that the then health minister had told ministerial colleagues he was deleting messages written during the Covid-19 crisis because they were subject to disclosure under freedom of information.
The First Minister initially claimed the messages related to a discussion that had taken place in the Labour Senedd group chat but confirmed on Wednesday they chat involved ministers and deputy ministers.
Welsh Government ministers were under an obligation to preserve messages relating to pandemic decision making and were required to hand them over to the UK Covid Inquiry.
Integrity
Mr Gething previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him, but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.
He denied the leaked message contradicted the evidence he had given to the inquiry, adding that it did not relate to pandemic decision-making but “comments that colleagues make to and about each other”.
Speaking during the scrutiny meeting, Mr Gething said it was difficult for him to constantly have his integrity questioned.
He said: “Here we are with more questions and more suggestions that go to heart of integrity and decency – and yet the government is getting on with the job.”
Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd asked the First Minister for clarity on whether the group chat was an “official ministerial message group” or an informal Labour group chat.
Mr Gething said: “I didn’t create the group – the group was created and we were all added in.”
When Mr Gruffydd attempted to press further, the First Minister appeared to lose his temper raising his voice at the Plaid Cymru MS demanding he be allowed to finish his answer.
He argued the question was “getting into the weeds” and said it was clear that the photograph “could only have come from one member”.
Mr Gruffydd suggested that because Ms Blythyn had denied being the source of the leak, the onus was on him to provide the evidence he used to make his decision to sack her.
Mr Gething said he rejected the suggestion completely.
The fiery discussion prompted an intervention from the Deputy Presiding Officer who said the issue would be covered in the Senedd during FMQs and a debate tabled by the Tories next week.
Mr Gething has come under sustained attack in recent months over a series of rows concerning a huge donation he took from a convicted polluter while running to be Welsh Labour leader.
This led to the collapse of a co-operation agreement between his party and Plaid Cymru and he subsequently lost a non-binding vote of no confidence in the Senedd.
The First Minister faces a fresh crunch vote next week which could compel him to publish the evidence he used to sack Ms Blythyn.
Following the scrutiny session, Plaid Cymru member Llyr Gruffydd MS said: “It was somewhat ironic that in the scrutiny session of the First Minister, Vaughan Gething did everything possible to avoid scrutiny.
“There remain two conflicting accounts relating to alleged leaked messages and the First Minister continues to side-step important questions. Why did he delete messages, contrary to Welsh government policy and why did he fail to provide messages to the UK Covid inquiry.
“The longer the First Minister is in denial about the scale of the scandal which surrounds him, the longer the people of Wales suffer by the impotency of his Labour government.”
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Not the first time we’ve seen Mr Gethin having a mini ‘Tommy tantrum’.
Yet when Mr Drakeford lost his cool it was either quietly ignored or painted as the justifiable frustration of an honourable and passionate politician.
I’m getting confused now. Did this man delete messages? And if this screen shot that has appeared (regardless from where) proves that he did delete these messages. Are these the
Messages that he has denied deleting?
Clear example of a person of narcissistic behavior. That of manipulation and control, and if that control is challenged, resorts to outbursts of anger. Most politicians of all colours are well trained in media stuff or dealing with opponents, the skill of when an interrupt follow-up question comes your way, there are two options, (a) pause and carry on saying what you were going to say anyway, or (b) answer the question put. You do not shout at the person putting the question. This tendency first came to my attention when interviewed by the BBC over the donation scandal, when… Read more »
About time that his colleagues grow a back bone and show that they have principles or lose their seats to Reform come 2026 by a pissed off electorate
VG does not do himself any favours any time he opens his mouth. His persona is arrogant, intolerant, entitled and short-fused, none of which sit well with his position.
This will go to the barricades and hopefully seriously damage Labour’s chances in the upcoming Senedd Election. Mr Gething appears like Belshazzar before him to be unable to read the writing on the wall….
The more people I discuss this with all agree one thing “his unbelievable arrogance “ . After every appearance we all have more questions to ask, the more we ask for clarity the less we get. Those Labour members in the Senedd who actually believe he is right or even acting with integrity let them back him and their constituents will kick them out
How come this meeting was in Strady Park and not the Senedd or Cathays Park .????? How much was this shindig ?????
bit of an issue with his temper again
The political selection pool in the UK has never been of such low quality, and in Wales it’s the bottom of the barrel. Gething’s always been useless, maybe because he’s never done any job that wasn’t related to politics. Labour and the BBC were hockahoop to celebrate him being Wales’s ‘first black first minister’: I’d suggest that, just like in Scotland, it hasn’t really gone so well. Maybe we should get back to meritocracy.
A whiff of Enoch emanates from many of your comments.
That’s respectfully a misinterpretation of the above comment and also suggests you haven’t done your own research into Enoch Powell. Ultimately as Adrian mentioned it was certain sections of the media and Gething and his cronies who were repeatedly referencing his skin colour during the leadership election and subsequently. Why make it an issue? That’s on the aforementioned by the way. We’ve then seen when Nation started reporting about the issues with the donations etc Gething’s supporters state the press scrutiny was motivated by racism. These were baseless accusations. Furthermore, if you follow reports by Nation Cymru you’ll have seen… Read more »
” I’d suggest that, just like in Scotland, it hasn’t really gone so well. “ That’s making a connection with the performance of two First Ministers the thing they have in common being that both are not white. “Maybe we should get back to meritocracy.” That implies that both First Ministers were appointed because they were not white’ If you can’t detect the odour of the above then maybe use a Vick’s nasal inhaler ( other inhalers are available) I don’t know the circumstances of Yusuf’s election but I’d be very surprised it was due to his ethnicity. I think Gething’s election… Read more »
I see this from a different angle and believe me it’s still not great. There was a lot of noise made about Humza Yousaf being the first Muslim leader of a UK political party and a, “first person of colour,” to lead Scotland. Again people were choosing to make ethnicity and in Yousaf’s case religious background an issue. To be honest it seems to me a lot of this fanfare was from pro-SNP quarters. Likewise I’d say the same about those who were choosing to emphasise Gething’s skin colour being very much pro-Labour quarters. Mind you there was a fair… Read more »
Most leaders are chosen for performative reasons. It’s not until they take up the role that you really know if they can perform. Johnson and Truss are two examples where the answer was a resounding no.
Mr Gething hasn’t been given the chance to perform.
Mr Gething only has himself and possibly some dimwitted advisers to blame for that. He talks about trust and the fact is people don’t trust him. Once you’ve lost that, you struggle to win it back. There were always going to be eyebrows raised about and more attention given to Dauson Environmental’s donation due to the size of it. So what happened re due diligence over that? Gething and co failed on that score. It didn’t take long for the issues with Dauson Environmental to start getting reported. When this started in February during the leadership contest, there was still… Read more »
I’d say that he has been performing and not very well
“Have you come across the performative allyship concept?”
I recognise the type of behaviour, attitude from various examples of hypocrisy/jumping on bandwagons/justifications/etc but I wasn’t aware that there was a specific technical term for it.
However I think there is a difference between the opinion that someone from an ethnic minority has been elected as First Minister because they are a member of an ethnic minority, compared with non ethnic minority sources making a song and dance about someone from an ethnic minority becoming First Minister.
The very same supporters who brokered the Dauson handout
First Black European leader. See how you are already trying to rewrite history to diminish the achievement.
Did the leak come from a VG friendly source, and so was it a set-up to eject HB in an easy, ‘no-fault’, way?
To me that seems increasingly likely.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if this transpired to be the case. Saw someone half jokingly comment elsewhere that at this point they wouldn’t rule out Gething himself being the source of the leak.
For what benefit?
He’s been caught lying, taking dodgy money, thrown a colleague under the bus to save his skin, can’t produce any evidence to explain why, and now when pressed on the matter he behaves like petulant child. Gething’s a low-quality huckster who’s been promoted well beyond both his abilities and his intellect…and of course he has the full support of Kier Starmer.
There’s no evidence that messages were actually deleted, is there? So where’s the lie?
Well the screenshot of the WhatsApp chat in question, which is in the public domain, shows Gething commenting: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FOI and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made…” I would think it’s a logical inference that he deleted them, isn’t it? Bearing in mind before this came to light he’d gone on record including to the BBC saying he had, “not deleted messages that relate to decision making, and in fact I never deleted any text message from my phone, because… Read more »
Saying you’re going to do something is not evidence of doing it.
I find it highly unlikely that Gething didn’t delete those particular messages.
I’ve seen a similar line to yours elsewhere online from known Gething supporters in the last few days. It’s not doing him any favours.
He’s wrecked his turn at being First Minister. The wheels have fallen off. The longer he clings on the more damage he will do to the party and his successor. It’s a gift horse to Plaid and the other parties the longer he stays.
Facts. The leak is in the form of a photo taken of a message thread on the display of HBs phone. That is true. However, HB says she didn’t leak this to the media. So who dunit? Opportunity. Visual access to the phone at incident time is afforded to staff and colleagues. Ability. Has to be someone who, at the time, had the confidence of HB. Motive. The message relates to candidate selection in Swansea West. There is an internal battle in Labour between London and Cardiff over parachutes and the original motive relates to this. The mention of the… Read more »
I’m not sure how you turned this onto VG. If it originated from her phone surely she must have an explanation for that.
A number of explanations. Was at the bus stop recently and the X11 cancelled. Distressed child. Gave the girl my phone to contact her parents, late home. Observed she was more adept in using it than I. This does not implicate me in the Welsh Government bus cuts scandal.
He is quite wrong to state that the burden of proof does not lie on him. Hannah Blythyn cannot prove what didn’t happen, as she claims, but Gethin could what did (as he says the proof is irrefutable). The fact he cannot or (more likely) will not due to it (probably) weakening his position speaks of his arrogance and lack of integrity. He has no right to be anywhere near the Senedd let alone the position of FM.
Where, oh where, have all the true statesmen gone?
The sooner Gething and his Labour cohorts are ejected from the Senedd the better. Wales has the worst education acheivements and Health Service in the UK and further afield. All devolved all down to Labour incompetence. They have to go, hopefully to be replaced by a party whose heart is in the wellbeing of Wales and Welsh people, only Plaid can claim that.
Doing down Wales and attacking hardworking teachers and doctors with falsehoods for political gain isn’t going to win many votes. Northern Ireland has people waiting five and a half years for treatment. And England refuse to release Pisa data for their regions so there’s no fair way to compare education across the UK. Plaid needs a positive message, not this rehash of Telegraph hatchet jobs.
He’s the snake being hunted by the mongoose, only one winner.
TA TA GETHING good riddance
“Speaking during the scrutiny meeting, Mr Gething said it was difficult for him to constantly have his integrity questioned.” Perhaps if he demonstrated some ‘integrity’ once in a while, or stopped doing things that call his ‘integrity’ into question, people wouldn’t have to question his ‘integrity’ in the first place! He has been shown to be a liar, or at least very economical with the truth on several occasions recently; He deliberately misled the UK Covid Inquiry He took £200k from a twice convicted environmental vandal and denied ever intervening on his behalf only for letters to emerge of him… Read more »
Regardless of the political party in power when an original leader is usurped , resigns or retires what comes after is increasingly poor quality Gething is an example of this.
Devaluation has been a massive mistake with regards to Wales, it’s supplied a stage for Nationalists and amateur politicians who continue to prove that they are only in politics for their own gain and continue to disenfranchise the electorate to the point where whole swathes of the population refuse to get involved with politics and will not vote.