Unelected Welsh Labour officials ‘threaten to impose new leader on Senedd group if Gething is ousted’

Martin Shipton

Unelected Welsh Labour officials are threatening to impose a new leader on the party’s Senedd group if Vaughan Gething is ousted, according to senior Labour sources.

If that happened, Wales would be plunged into an unprecedented political crisis.

NationCymru has been told that the threat reflects a growing realisation among those who support Mr Gething that his position as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister is unsustainable and that he will have to step down.

Weeks before he narrowly defeated Jeremy Miles in the leadership election in March, we revealed how Mr Gething had accepted donations totalling £200,000 from a waste company owned by businessman David Neal, who had previously been handed two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the Gwent Levels protected wetland landscape near Cardiff.

Also, a screenshot of iMessages from a ministerial group chat that took place as the Welsh Government was managing the Covid-19 outbreak was leaked to NationCymru. It showed Mr Gething stating that he was deleting messages because they would be disclosable under freedom of information legislation.

Disclosed

The material should later have been disclosed to the UK Covid Inquiry, but when he gave evidence to it he denied deleting messages himself and said some were deleted when his mobile phone was serviced by the Senedd’s IT department. The Inquiry has made a statement that it takes the destruction of potential evidence very seriously and is considering what to do about the matter.

The pressure on Mr Gething intensified after he was defeated in a motion of no confidence moved by the Welsh Conservatives at the Senedd and supported by Plaid Cymru and the sole Liberal Democrat MS Jane Dodds. Two Labour MSs abstained – Hannah Blythyn, who Mr Gething sacked as Social Partnership Minister, accusing her of leaking the screenshot about deleting messages, an allegation she denies and Lee Waters, who has criticised Mr Gething for accepting the £200k from Mr Neal. Both are understood to have had sick notes to excuse their absence.

A senior Labour source told us: “We really are reaching the endgame so far as Vaughan Gething is concerned. What’s being put around is that if he is forced out, the Welsh Executive Committee (WEC) will choose who takes over.

“I don’t believe that is realistic in any way. There would be absolute uproar if, for example, the WEC tried to tell the group that it was imposing someone like [Cabinet Secretary for Education and strong Gething supporter] Lynne Neagle as the leader. I don’t know if they have the technical power to do this, but in any case they couldn’t force Labour MSs to vote for the WEC’s chosen successor as First Minister.”

Right wing

The WEC is controlled by the right wing of Welsh Labour, many of whom back Mr Gething. It has recently shown that it is prepared to do the bidding of UK Labour by rubber-stamping the selection of candidates imposed on Wales by the party’s National Executive Committee.

Another senior Labour source told NationCymru: “I think there’s no doubt that Vaughan will go, and the talk of imposing a new leader on the group is totally unrealistic. I don’t think they can do it under the rules, and I think it’s unimaginable that they would try. It would provoke a massive crisis that would do huge damage to the party.

“My view is that Vaughan’s supporters know that the game is up and are expressing their anger and frustration by coming up with an idea that is completely unworkable. It’s inconceivable that they would actually try to do it. If they did, there would be a much bigger constitutional crisis than there was when Alun Michael [Wales’ first post-devolution leader] was voted out of office just nine months after the Assembly was set up.

“Labour MSs couldn’t, in any case, be forced to vote for a First Minister foisted on them by the WEC. So you could have a situation if this absurd scenario played out where the imposed Labour leader failed to get elected as First Minister.”

Rhodri Morgan

When Mr Michael was forced out of office by a combined vote of the opposition parties, who in 2000 held a 32-28 majority, Rhodri Morgan was quickly installed as the new leader by the group and elected First Minister.

The second Labour source said that in recent days Mr Gething had held a succession of private meetings with members of the Labour Senedd group, some of whom had told him they believed he should resign.

“Vaughan has been aiming for the last 25 years to be First Minister, so psychologically it will be difficult for him to come to terms with the fact that he will have to stand down,” said the source. His supporters should be preparing him for the inevitable.In the past they’ve tended to tell him what they think he wants to hear.”

Last week we alluded to further revelations that were expected to come into the public domain. We understand Welsh Labour is aware of a major story due to break soon which will put further pressure on Mr Gething and will make his continuation in office even less tenable.

Supportive

UK Labour figures have continued to make supportive statements about Mr Gething when asked about his acceptance of the £200k from a convicted criminal, but their defence of the First Minister has not had traction with the public, a large majority of whom have told pollsters that he should have returned the money.

A recent poll also showed that Mr Gething’s approval rating in Wales was even lower than that of Rishi Sunak – a remarkable result in a nation where Labour has been the biggest party for more than 100 years.