Vaughan Gething accuses Leighton Andrews of being a ‘finger wagging’ Minister

Martin Shipton

Former Education Minister Leighton Andrews has accused Vaughan Gething of discourtesy and hypocrisy after the ex-First Minister told a Senedd committee he had been a “finger-wagging” politician.

As a member of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, Mr Gething participated in a discussion about improving school standards with officials of the school inspection body Estyn, including its chief inspector Owen Evans.

‘Berate’

Outlining different ways to broach the improvement of standards with school leaders, Mr Gething said: “If you’re the Cabinet Secretary [for Education], do you take an approach saying, ‘I’m alongside you and I want this to happen and I know you do too’ for all of the trade unions in the sector, both teaching and support staff, for local authority leaders, officers and school leaders, or do you take, if you like, a more Leighton Andrews, directional, finger-wagging style, where you berate people and say,’You’re not good enough, you have to improve, otherwise I’m coming for you’?

“Because actually it’s easy to generate headlines with one of those approaches. It’s more difficult with another.

“But it’s about what gets us to the best point when improvement takes place, because that’s a better job for teachers to do, a better job for local authority officers to do, and a much better outcome-based system for our children and young people.”

Discourteous

After the meeting Mr Andrews, now Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation at Cardiff Business School, told Nation.Cymru: “Obviously I would never be so discourteous about a former colleague. But I am surprised at this – I remember when I was Education Minister Vaughan Gething specifically invited me to a meeting he’d called in the Senedd with headteachers from his constituency, precisely BECAUSE he wanted me to wag my finger at the under-performing schools!”

Mr Andrews was Labour’s Assembly Member for Rhondda from 2003 until 2016, when he lost his seat to Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood.

Mr Gething, the MS for Cardiff South and Penarth, spent less than five months as First Minister before stepping down after losing the confidence of the Labour group as well as the Senedd as a whole amid multiple scandals, including accepting a £200,000 donation to his Welsh Labour leadership campaign from a businessman who was a convicted criminal, and telling fellow Ministers he was deleting i-Messages on his phone because they would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

He subsequently gave evidence under oath to the UK Covid Inquiry, claiming that messages had been deleted from his phone by the Senedd’s IT department.

Mr Gething has confirmed that he will not be standing for re-election at next year’s Senedd election.