Look on the bright side. With 118 days as the Welsh first minister behind him, Vaughan Gething has comfortably done two Liz Trusses and more. The Tories have sent the benchmark for failure commendably low. There again, a shade under four months is still – how shall we put it kindly? – sub-optimal. Especially when your time in office includes having lost a no-confidence vote a while ago that you chose to ignore. This isn’t the kind of record that inspires confidence. Not least when it’s your own party who are out to get you.
On Tuesday morning, the Welsh Labour government hit crisis point when three ministers resigned and a senior adviser resigned over Gething’s continued leadership. The writing wasn’t so much on the wall as right in his face. Within an hour Gething succumbed to the inevitable and announced his resignation. At lunchtime he made a personal statement to the Senedd before first minister’s questions.
Gething came out fighting. He had done nothing wrong. Throughout his political career, his only goal had been to serve the Welsh people. He was proud to have been the first black leader of Wales. Proud to stand up for all those who feel unrepresented. No one could have done more for his country than him. First as a trade union lawyer, then as a campaigner for the Senedd and finally as a government minister for 11 years.
At all times he had followed the rules and he had been undone by pernicious rumours that were all untrue. He sounded as if he meant it. Though he clearly missed the irony when he declared the “burden of proof is no longer a prerequisite”. It was only last week Gething sacked Hannah Blythyn, the minister for social partnership, for leaking a WhatsApp in which he suggested deleting messages. The website Nation Cymru has insisted Blythyn was not the source of the leak. Even so, Gething is still convinced she was. No presumption of innocence for Blythyn.
“I feel personally bruised by all that has happened,” he said. No arguing with that. I’m sure he does. Though he didn’t sound like a man ready to admit his own part in his downfall. Personal responsibility was a step too far. There wasn’t one thing he could think of that he could have done differently.
He had been the model first minister. He had left Wales a better place, he concluded. Mmm. If by better, you mean a government in crisis and facing a second leadership contest this year. A crisis brought about entirely by itself. Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives have merely been grateful observers. Gething’s fiercest critics have come from within his own party. Then there were the knock-on effects. The embarrassment to Keir Starmer who throughout the recent election campaign had given his unequivocal support to Gething.
There was a smattering of polite applause from some – but by no means all – in the Labour seats when Gething sat down. Hardly a ringing endorsement. Then we moved on to FMQs. After members had asked about affordable housing and child poverty – all conducted in a refreshingly grownup and polite manner: no shouting and braying to be found in the Senedd – it was the turn of the Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies.
“I wish you all the best,” he began, pleasantly enough. He had offered to shake Gething’s hand that morning in the lift, but the first minister had declined. Rude. He then got to the point. Why had Gething accepted a loan of £200,000 for his leadership campaign from a company run by a man convicted of environmental crimes?
Gething had no real answer to this. He wouldn’t – or couldn’t – explain why he had taken five times the amount of money he needed. He may not have repaid the favour but he must know it looks bad. If the Tories had done this, Gething would have been the first to object. Instead he just waved this all away imperiously as he has always done previously. Nothing to see here. He had done nothing wrong. He was a man of integrity. Yes, but why the extra £160,000, Vaughan?
That was left hanging. Davies then wondered whether Welsh Labour was capable of governing given the never-ending scandals and leadership contests. This was pushing it. The Tories are not ones to give lectures on clusterfucks and changing leaders. Though maybe that was Davies’s point. Try harder not to be like us.
Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth paid tribute to Gething’s public service but said it was right for him to go. It was a matter of perception as much as getting at the truth. The loan looked wrong. As did deleting government WhatsApps. Just insisting everything was fine and there was nothing to see here didn’t cut it. Wales deserved a better explanation than had been given.
Hell, even Welsh Labour thought it was iffy and that Gething hadn’t provided a proper explanation. At best it was gross incompetence, which was of itself a resigning matter. So how about an emergency election? Now it was the Tories’ turn to look worried. The last thing they wanted was a Senedd election when they had just lost every Welsh seat in Westminster. Luckily, Gething was in no mood to oblige and the session petered out. Drama over for now.
Still, Gething conducted himself with rather more dignity and refinement than two of the last three UK prime ministers. Both of whom were also forced by their own party to resign in disgrace. Having thrown a hissy fit at failing to be re-elected as an MP – the people of Norfolk didn’t deserve her – Liz Truss has now shown up at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. She’s like a piece of political flotsam drifting aimlessly. She doesn’t know what she’s doing there. She means nothing to the Republicans. All she can do is pray that some rightwing cable TV station will ask her to say something everyone can ignore. You can’t get much lower than this.
Though that doesn’t mean Boris Johnson doesn’t try. Having spent the weekend looking like a bloated ghost at an Indian billionaire’s wedding, Johnson has also turned up in Wisconsin, where he too is completely unwanted. He spoke to an audience of about eight in a side room. And half of them were unconscious. He’s now just a political parasite. An irrelevance feeding off rightwing populists like Donald Trump and JD Vance. Hoping for a blessing from the next US president. Hard to believe, but Boris is still demeaning the office of prime minister long after he has been forced out.
Compared to these two, Gething looks like a model of decency.
