Labour group meets – but fails to discuss Gething crisis

Martin Shipton

A Labour Senedd group meeting has taken place without a substantive discussion of the crisis affecting Vaughan Gething’s leadership, we have been told.

Instead, the Friday morning meeting on June 7 was mainly devoted to talking about the party’s general election manifesto.

We have been told that UK Labour has decided that despite the passing of a vote of no confidence by the Senedd in Mr Gething on Wednesday June 5, it would not be in the party’s best interests for him to stand down during the general election campaign.

A Labour insider told NationCymru: “There is a growing realisation that Vaughan’s position is untenable and that he will have to resign, but the UK party’s strategists think it would be an unwelcome distraction for that to happen during the election campaign.

“While there is an argument that Vaughan resigning now and being replaced very quickly by Jeremy Miles would calm the situation down, there would inevitably be a backlash from Vaughan’s supporters that would attract negative publicity on a UK level and be damaging to the party while the election campaign was ongoing.”

Further revelations

However, there are concerns that further revelations about the £200k donated to Mr Gething’s leadership campaign by Dauson Environmental Group, owned by convicted polluter David Neal, will continue to damage Labour.

A YouGov poll released this week showed that in a Senedd election, Labour’s lead over Plaid Cymru has been cut to just seven percentage points.

The Labour insider told us: “At the beginning of the group meeting, Vaughan thanked Senedd Members for supporting him in the confidence vote. There was no discussion about his leadership or what comes next in relation to it. Instead the meeting was devoted to discussing the general election manifesto.”

The no confidence motion against Mr Gething was passed by 29 votes to 27, with all opposition members supporting it. Two Labour MSs – Hannah Blythyn and Lee Waters – were said to be ill and unable to vote.

Both are known to be unfavourably disposed towards Mr Gething. He sacked Ms Blythyn from her role as Social Partnership Minister, accusing her of leaking the screenshot of an iMessage sent by Mr Gething to a ministerial group chat during the Covid period in which he said he was deleting messages because they would be subject to disclosure under freedom of information legislation.

Lost messages

He later gave evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry in which he claimed he had not deleted messages, but that they had been lost while his mobile phone was undergoing a refit by the Senedd’s IT department.

The Inquiry has said it is taking our disclosure that he deleted messages very seriously, and is considering what action to take.

Ms Blythyn has emphatically denied that she was the source of the leak. Mr Waters has been publicly critical of Mr Gething’s decision to accept the £200k from Mr Neal’s company.

Concern within the wider Labour Party continues to grow about the impact of Mr Gething’s behaviour on the party and on Welsh devolution.

Trusted advisor

One of former First Minister Mark Drakeford’s most trusted advisers, David Llewellyn Davies, also a former chair of Cardiff West constituency Labour party, wrote a message on X which said: “I posted on Facebook earlier why Welsh and UK Labour politicians should not be denigrating a majority vote in our Senedd as a ‘stunt’ or ‘gimmick’. We desperately need a UK Labour government but not at the expense of respecting our hard won Welsh democracy.”

On Thursday June 6 Ms Rathbone told BBC Radio Wales Drive that the “reputation of the Senedd is at risk” and that accepting money from people convicted of environmental offences “is a problem”.

She said the issue had been raised on the doorstep during the general election campaign.

Asked if Mr Gething could brush off the defeat and carry on as before, she said: “I don’t know. It’s a very uncertain environment. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“It is uncomfortable because we’ve all been dragged into this,” she said.

Pressed on whether the First Minister had the confidence of the Senedd, Ms Rathbone added: “Well, he lost the vote. That’s on the public record. I think you’d have to address your remarks to him.”

Ms Rathbone had offered to lend Mr Gething money so he could repay the controversial donations made to his campaign.

Mr Gething has declined to repay the cash.

In an earlier interview she said: “I don’t think it is wise to be taking money from a convicted criminal, and therefore I think it’s important that we enable this money to be repaid if that is what Vaughan Gething wishes to do.”

Vikki Howells, a supporter of Mr Gething’s who chairs the Senedd Labour group, said it would have been a breach of the Ministerial Code for him to have taken such a loan.