STORY
Vaughan Gething, the First Minister of Wales, has refused to stand down despite losing a vote of no confidence in the Senedd by 29 votes to 27 votes. Gething has been linked to a series of scandals in recent weeks, including accepting donations by a man convicted of environmental offences as well as allegedly encouraging others to delete Covid WhatsApp messages. Gething defended himself in the Senedd, saying:
“Diolch, Llywydd. I regret that the Conservatives have brought forward this motion today. I do not regret it because I think I’m above criticism. I do not regret it because I think I have made and will continue to make mistakes. I am human, I am fallible. I do not even regret it because of the issues it raises, because I have nothing to hide. I regret the motion because it is designed to question my integrity. Like so many of you in this Chamber, I have dedicated my adult life to public service and to Wales. Even in the midst of an election campaign, it does hurt deeply when my intentions are questioned. I have never, ever made a decision in more than a decade as a Minister for personal or financial gain—never. I do not doubt the sincerity behind some of the questions that the motion touches on today, even if the motion is transparently designed for another purpose. I hope the people in this Chamber and beyond will take a moment to reflect on the sincerity with which I have answered and continue to answer these questions. I will not shy away from scrutiny and challenge. I have reflected on donations and, as Members know, I’ve instigated a review into how that is handled in the future in my party, and I’ve asked the cross-party Standards of Conduct Committee to look at Senedd rules for all of us.”
Andrew Davies, the Leader of the Opposition in Wales, questioned the integrity of Gething in the debate and why he had accepted the donation. He added:
“Then we move to transparency. We learned through the press that, in August 2020, iMessages that were in a ministerial chat group were considerable, there was considerable conversation going on in that ministerial chat group, and, at the end of that chat group, there was a message from the First Minister, who was then the Minister for health, saying that the messages could be captured by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and that, therefore, he would be deleting those messages. That shows the train of thought that was being undertaken at the time, about trying to circumnavigate the Freedom of Information Act. It also runs roughshod over the advice given by the chief ethics officer of the Welsh Government in 2019 that any electronic communication should be captured and retained for future reference, should any inquiries demand that information.”
