THE Welsh First Minister has confirmed he will step down after a humiliating co-ordinated mass resignation from his Government.
The scandal-hit Vaughan Gething has said he will “begin the process of stepping down as leader of the Welsh Labour Party and, as a result, First Minister”.
It comes after four members of his government resigned on Tuesday morning, heaping pressure on the embattled Labour politician to consider his position.
He has been embroiled in controversy during his short time at the top of Welsh politics and last month refused to step down despite losing a no-confidence vote.
In a statement on Tuesday, Gething said: “I have this morning taken the difficult decision to begin the process of stepping down as leader of the Welsh Labour Party and, as a result, First Minister.
“Having been elected as leader of my party in March, I had hoped that over the summer a period of reflection, rebuilding and renewal could take place under my leadership.
“I recognise now that this is not possible. It has been the honour of my life to do this job even for a few short months.”
The Welsh Labour leader’s position on Tuesday morning appeared untenable after the resignations of Mick Antoniw, Julie James, Lesley Griffiths, and Jeremy Miles, who all called for Gething to go.
His refusal to step down following a no-confidence vote in the Welsh Parliament had left the Senedd “rudderless”, according to Antoniw, who quit as Counsel General.
Miles, who quit as Economy Secretary, added: “The events of the last few months including your loss of the confidence vote in the Senedd, have been incredibly painful.”
Gething had caused upset within his ranks over the decision to sack former minister Hannah Blythyn, who it is believed he thought had leaked private messages to the media. She denied doing so and the media outlet she was alleged to have leaked to also took the extraordinary step of saying she was not their source.
Nation Cymru said in a statement last week: “Given the strong public interest and importance of this story and out of concern for Hannah Blythyn’s wellbeing, we have decided that the right thing to do is to state publicly that she was not the source of our story and that at no stage before or since publication of it have we had any contact with her about it.
“We can state unequivocally that Mr Gething is not telling the truth when he suggests that he has incontrovertible evidence that Ms Blythyn was our source."
The embattled Welsh Labour leader had also faced criticism for taking £200,000 as a donation to his campaign to replace Mark Drakeford from a firm which had been convicted of environmental offences.
His refusal to hand back the money, triggered the collapse of his power-sharing deal with Plaid Cymru.
