A corrupt, lying, bullying powerful man who thought he was unaccountable and untouchable has been brought down…mainly by his own ill-judged political choices.
When I was growing up the idea that there might simultaneously be a Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party from an Indian background, a Muslim leader of Scotland and London, and a black leader of Wales would have seemed remote – and its a sign of social progress – it’s a tragedy that Vaughan Gething disgraced himself and his role.
Gething represents the wing of the Labour Party who sought to sabotage efforts of the left to transform Labour under Jeremy Corbyn into a progressive anti-austerity, anti-racist and anti-war party, who support Starmer.
The neoliberal austerity economics that Gething supports on a UK-level has seen black youth unemployment in the UK at its highest levels in forty years, over half of British black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani children trapped in poverty, and has reduced half of British Muslims to living under the poverty line.
In contrast with that world, this all started with a cash-for-influence scandal where Vaughan Gething took a £200,000 campaign donation from a corrupt businessman who it appears in pursuit of profit has convictions over environmental pollution of our communities, and has seen two workers at a firm he owns killed due to lax health and safety.
The fall of Gething ran a bit like this –
Divisions opened up within the ruling Labour group in The Senedd when he narrowly won the leadership contest to be First Minister with claims of stitch ups with union nominations, but more significantly a feeling in some quarters that a huge campaign donation had swung it in his favour, that ‘big money’ had decided who leads Wales.
Initially, the huge donation to Gething’s leadership campaign was controversial simply because the size – £200,000 – is unprecedented in Welsh politics
Then it turned out the donor had multiple criminal convictions for environmental pollution.
Then it turned out Gething had lobbied an environmental regulator to go easy on the businessman who subsequently gave him £200,000 towards his leadership campaign.
Then it turned out the businessman owned a firm prosecuted and fined five years ago under the 1974 Health and Safety Act following the death of a worker. Last week another worker died.
Then it turned out the same day the businessman gave a huge donation to Gething’s camapign he lodged an application with the Welsh Government to build a solar farm.
Then it turned out the businessman had a £400,000 loan from the Welsh Government owned Development Bank of Wales – this is run by an independent board, but as Economy Minister, Gething oversaw it – the same businessman had enough spare cash though to give £200,000 to Gething.
Gething arrogantly refused to acknowledge their might be valid concerns over this all. To most people it looked corrupt and it felt like political sleaze.
Then there was the scandal over Gething lying under oath to the Covid public inquiry. He claimed that WhatsApp messages had been deleted by the Senedd IT team updating systems. It was then revealed he himself had ordered the messages to be deleted explicitly stating the aim was to evade a Freedom of information request. He lied to avoid democratic accountability.
Gething then publicly humiliated and sacked one of his ministerial colleagues Hannah Blythyn claiming to have absolute proof she had leaked this. Then the newspaper revealed Blythyn wasn’t the source. Reportedly she took time off work with mental health problems and judging from body language at recent appearances in the Senedd is still traumatised by how she was treated by Gething.
With first rate investigative journalism, muckraking and sustained media scrutiny by dedicated journalists holding public officials to account, and following the sacking of the Minister, it was now civil war in the Labour group climaxing in the simultaneous resignation of four Welsh Government Ministers.
While this all unfolded the opposition parties sensing an opportunity had banded together to say that they would block the budget passing in the autumn if Gething was still leader. With Labour lacking the majority to get a budget through this made Gething’s future untenable.
Earlier Plaid Cymru pulled out of their cooperation agreement with Labour citing Gething as the reason. The Tories tabled a No Confidence vote which they won when two Labour politicians called in sick. Gething called the vote a gimmick and refused to leave.
A deflection tactic used by Gething and his supporters has been to assert disquiet over his conduct is primarily driven by race, that if Gething was white he would still be in office, that racism drove the campaign that led to his resignation and he was held to different standards. Certainly, this is an issue in politics, but looking at the chain of events that led to his resignation, a white First Minister guilty of the same misdemeanours would have ended the same way? Nobody on the left can defend Gething or oppose his resignation. That the rot runs deeper than one man is no reason to have not agitated for his resignation, which now opens the door to challenging the rot more widely.
My abiding memory of Gething’s short lived leadership will be on the day when he officially became First Minister we held a protest outside the Senedd to call for him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza to stop the slaughter of children. He abstained previously on a ceasefire vote.
Every single one of his supporters who filed into the building that day to celebrate his victory totally blanked the Palestine protest against the genocide. His entire movement on the wrong side of history.
Today, Wales has the highest rates of poverty and low pay in the UK. The Labour-run Welsh Government’s failure to be a beacon of resistance, managing austerity rather than challenging it opens the door to forces like Reform posing as anti-establishment.
The arrogant corrupt right wing clique in Welsh Labour suffered a blow this week. Good. Savour the moment and hope for many more moments to come.
48 hours later, it still feels good, doesn’t it?
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