Vaughan Gething to become Wales first minister and country’s first Black leader

The economy minister will become the country’s first Black leader, and will replace Mark Drakeford, who announced his intention to quit in December after five years in the role.

Mr Gething was chosen by Welsh Labour members to lead their party leader in a result announced in Cardiff on Saturday, a day after his 50th birthday. However, he will not take over as first minister until Wednesday – when a vote will be held in the Senedd.

He beat his only rival, the education minister Jeremy Miles, in a vote open to only around 100,000 of the party faithful and members of affiliated organisations and trade unions.

Mr Drakeford is not expected to stand down immediately, and will take his final first minister’s questions on Tuesday.

The handover in power comes as Wales faces a challenging time, including farmers protesting, NHS waiting lists hitting record highs and an economy recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, during which Mr Gething served as health minister.

Hailing the victory as a “historic moment that speaks to the progress and values of modern-day Wales”, Sir Keir Starmer said: “With his many years of experience in the Senedd, I know he will lead a hopeful, ambitious Welsh Labour government, in the face of a tired and failed Tory government in Westminster.

“On behalf of the entire UK Labour Party, we look forward to campaigning with Vaughan in this new chapter for Wales, to deliver Labour governments across Britain.”

Mr Gething had the backing of most of the large unions, and Lord Neil Kinnock, who led the UK party from 1983 to 1992 – but much of the leadership race’s controversy has centred around Mr Gething.

There have been a string of concerns raised around £200,000 of donations to Mr Gething from a company which was found guilty of environmental offences in January and fined £300,000 for one of its worker’s deaths in February, after it pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety rules.

Earlier this week, the BBC revealed that Mr Gething had lobbied regulators in favour of the company, asking Natural Resources Wales to ease restrictions on Atlantic Recycling in 2016.

The firm gave Mr Gething £100,000 on 18 December and another £100,000 on 11 January. Mr Gething and his team have always insisted the donation was declared in line with Senedd and Electoral Commission rules and that the minister is committed to transparency.

Early in the campaign, concerns were also raised over the Unite union’s backing of Mr Gething, after his opponent was disqualified because he has never held “elected lay office as representatives of workers”.

His rival Mr Miles said it was “a new rule that no-one was aware of” and that members were unhappy. But Unite insisted it had carried out the nomination process correctly and Mr Gething said it was up to the union to determine its own democratic processes.

Unlike previous Labour leadership elections, all the votes were equally weighted. Selections have previously used an “electoral college” system, giving greater weight to MPs and Members of the Senedd.

Mr Gething joined the Labour Party at 17 to help campaign in the 1992 elections, and has been a Member of the Senedd (MS) since 2011, having sat in the cabinet since 2016, first as health minister until 2021 and then as economy minister.

Mr Gething was born in Zambia in 1974, where his father, a Welsh vet from Ogmore-by-Sea in Glamorgan, met his mother, a chicken farmer.

He has spoken openly about his experiences of prejudice and said in his campaign material he does not want anyone in Wales to feel that way. When he was two, his family moved to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, where his father was due to start a new job, but the offer was withdrawn when he arrived with a black family.

After his father lost his job in Abergavenny, the family moved to Dorset in England, and he later studied law at Aberystwyth University. He unsuccessfully stood for the Mid and West Wales seat at the first National Assembly elections in 1999, before becoming councillor for the Butetown area of Cardiff in 2004.

He stood for the Senedd elections again in 2011, when he successfully took the Cardiff South and Penarth Seat. This is the second time he has run for the top job, having stood in 2018 against Mark Drakeford.

Additional reporting by PA

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