Vaughan Gething sets up private company

Martin Shipton

Former First Minister Vaughan Gething has set up a private company with himself as the sole director, suggesting he may be planning a post-Senedd career as a business consultant.

Companies House records show that he registered a firm called CG Choma Ltd on September 25 2025.

Its registered office is at Tudor House in Cathedral Road, Cardiff and he is listed as the only director under his full name – Humphrey Vaughan Ap David Gething.

Tudor House is a five storey building with self-contained office suites on each floor at the city centre end of Cathedral Road, a conservation area composed largely of late Victorian and Edwardian houses, although Tudor House is a far more recent purpose-built office block. The building backs onto Sophia Gardens and is yards from Transport House, where Welsh Labour has its headquarters and where Mr Gething had his power base, with its senior officials fervently loyal to him.

CG Choma is an “off-the-peg” company, with Mr Gething owning the sole £1 share that has been issued. As a result he is listed as an Individual Person with Significant Control.

The origin of the firm’s name is unknown, although Mr Gething’s mother was from Zambia and Choma is the capital of the country’s Southern Province.

The only clue to the kind of business the company undertakes comes from its classification by Companies House as one that provides “Other service activities not elsewhere classified”.

It does not appear to have a website, although it is described as an “active” company. Its first set of accounts, covering the period up to September 2026, are not due to be filed until June 2027.

Mr Gething resigned as Welsh Labour leader in July 2024 after only four months in post and as First Minister a month later. His short period in office was dominated by scandal arising out of his decision to accept donations totalling £200,000 to his Welsh Labour leadership campaign from David Neal, a businessman who had twice been convicted of dumping toxic sludge in the sensitive protected wetlands area of the Gwent Levels, for which he was given two suspended prison sentences.

Previously he had served as Health Minister and Economy Minister.

Nation.Cymru was the first news outlet to reveal that Mr Gething had received donations from a convicted criminal. We also revealed how he had told ministerial colleagues during the Covid crisis that he was deleting messages from an online chat they had participated in to avoid the possibility of their being disclosed in line following a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Later he misled the UK Covid-19 Inquiry by stating under oath that messages had been deleted when his mobile phone was serviced by the Senedd’s IT department.

According to the Senedd’s website, Mr Gething’s entry in the Register of Members’ Interests has not been updated since September 20 2024. It does not, therefore, contain any reference to his directorship or shareholding in CG Choma Ltd.

Entries for some other MSs have been updated more recently.

Cardiff Parkway

A Welsh Labour source said: “Since Vaughan stepped down as First Minister, he has devoted a lot of time to representing the interests of the businessman Nigel Roberts, who is developing a business park at St Mellons on the eastern outskirts of Cardiff, and where it was recently confirmed that a new train station called Cardiff Parkway will be developed.

“There has been a suggestion that Vaughan might get a job with Rolls Royce, which intends to have an office on Mr Roberts’ business park, but that has not been confirmed.

“People are expecting him to have a business career rather than returning to the law – he was a solicitor with Thompsons before being elected to the Senedd in 2011. It would be logical for him to set up a consultancy firm.”