Welsh First Minister Loses Vote of No Confidence

Vaughan Gething at Cardiff University, after being elected as the next Welsh Labour leader and first minister of Wales, in Cardiff, Wales, on March 16, 2024. Ben Birchall/PA Wire

The First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething has lost a vote of no confidence tabled by the Welsh Conservatives.

The motion took place on Wednesday following the collapse of a cooperation deal between Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Twenty-nine Welsh MPs voted in favour of the resolution, while 27 voted against.

Mr. Gething, who replaced Mark Drakeford as Welsh first minister in March in a Welsh Labour leadership contest, indicated he would still remain in office. The motion is non-binding and will not force him to stand down.

Rows

The minister has faced questions over a £200,000 donation to his Welsh Labour leadership campaign from a company called the Dauson Environmental Group, which is owned by David Neal, who has twice been convicted of environmental offences.

The sum is understood to be the largest individual donation in Welsh Government history.

There has also been a series of rows including whether Mr. Gething may have deleted text messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. He led Wales’s health response until 2021.

In a leaked message, Mr. Gething wrote on Aug. 17 2020, “I’m deleting the messages in this group.”

“They can be captured in an FOI [Freedom of Information request] and I think we are in the right place on the choice being made.”

Mr. Gething denied the message contradicted the evidence he had given to the COVID Inquiry, adding that the message did not relate to pandemic decision making but “comments that colleagues make to and about each other.”

He subsequently sacked his minister for social partnership, Hannah Blythyn, following the leak of a phone message to the Nation.Cymru news website which she denies having written.

Intensely Personal

Before the vote, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru of “game playing.”

Asked if the first minister should resign if he loses the vote, the Labour leader said: “I think it’s really important to see this for what it is, it’s game playing by the Conservatives, Plaid playing along as well.

“What Vaughan Gething wants to do is to deliver for the people of Wales, and I think people in Wales want him to deliver for them so that’s where his priority is and that’s where my priority is.”

Following the result, Plaid Cymru Llywydd Elin Jones said: “It is now for the first minister to reflect on the view that the Senedd has just expressed and the motion that has been agreed.

“Confidence motions are political yes, but they are also intensely personal and while a vote of this nature will have consequences whatever they may be, I ask us all to treat each other with respect and kindness now.

“The people of Wales expect that of their Senedd.”

‘Many People of Colour Have Been Traduced and Vilified’

In the debate leading up to the vote, Mr. Gething—who is Wales’s first black leader—said he regretted a motion “designed to question my integrity.” He also suggested that “many people of colour” have been “vilified.”

“Like so many of you in this chamber, I have dedicated my adult life to public services and to Wales,” he said.

“Even in the midst of an election campaign, it does hurt deeply when my intentions are questioned.”

He said he would “not shy away from scrutiny and challenge.”

The first minister said that he and “so many people of colour have been traduced and vilified merely for raising concerns about how some of these debates have been handled.”

“I will continue to put Wales first, first in thought, deed, and ambition, as I serve and lead my country,” he added.

‘Do the Right Thing’

Andrew RT Davies MS, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said: “According to Welsh Labour’s chair, the Senedd has no confidence in Vaughan Gething.

“The Welsh people have no confidence in Vaughan Gething.

“The only person left supporting Vaughan Gething is Keir Starmer.”

Welsh Conservative MS Paul Davies called for Mr. Gething to step down and “do the right thing.”

PA Media contributed to this report.