Keir Starmer could be forgiven for thinking that he wouldn’t have to worry about Wales in the upcoming election. Labour’s dominance stretches back for more than a century, and the party has led every government since devolution in the 1990s. The next month will therefore have looked fairly straightforward for Labour election HQ.
However, as the election campaign was getting underway, the Welsh Labour first minister, Vaughan Gething, lost a confidence vote in the Senedd. This was the culmination of months of controversy over a £200,000 donation Gething received from a company whose owner had been convicted of dumping waste on the Gwent Levels.
Gething and his allies have insisted that the vote was a Tory gimmick organised as part of their election tactics. The vote was non-binding, and Gething is adamant that he will not resign. While unlikely to have a major impact on Labour’s general election results in Wales, Starmer and his team could do without troubled waters in Cardiff Bay.
