{"id":95482,"date":"2024-07-16T10:46:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T10:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/vaughan-gething-to-quit-as-welsh-first-minister\/"},"modified":"2024-07-16T10:46:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T10:46:28","slug":"vaughan-gething-to-quit-as-welsh-first-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/vaughan-gething-to-quit-as-welsh-first-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaughan Gething to quit as Welsh first minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vaughan<\/div>


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Vaughan Gething has announced he is quitting as Wales’s first minister.<\/p>\n

In a statement, he 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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“I recognise now that this is not possible.<\/p>\n

“It has been the honour of my life to do this job even for a few short months.”<\/p>\n

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\n Keir Starmer with Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething. Pic: PA
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It comes after four ministers quit the Welsh government<\/a> <\/strong>this morning, telling the Labour first minister they cannot get on with their jobs “without you standing down”.<\/p>\n

Mr Gething was elected to become First Minister in March<\/a><\/strong> but quickly faced an array of problems.<\/p>\n

He came under sustained criticism for his decision to sack former minister Hannah Blythyn<\/a> <\/strong>over the leak of a text message, which she denies being behind, and <\/strong>questions were raised about a controversial \u00a3200k donation to his leadership campaign<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This led to the collapse of a co-operation agreement between his party and Plaid Cymru and he subsequently lost a non-binding vote of no confidence in the Senedd<\/strong><\/a> (Welsh parliament) 29-27.<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


\n \"Welsh
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\n 0:17<\/span>
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Wales first minister in tears <\/span>
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Mr Gething said the motion was a “gimmick” and that opposition parties had declined to take part in a pairing arrangement to balance out the votes of two Labour members who were unwell.<\/p>\n

Critics said Mr Gething’s leadership campaign should not have accepted the donation from the company of a man previously convicted of environmental offences.<\/p>\n

The Labour leader said the donation was within the rules and was declared in line with party protocols.<\/p>\n

He refused calls for an inquiry into the donation, but instead commissioned a wider review into political donations.<\/p>\n

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Mick Antoniw, Julie James, Lesley Griffiths and Jeremy Miles all quit their cabinet positions in a protest over Mr Gething’s leadership.<\/p>\n

Mr Gething, who was the Welsh health minister during the pandemic, also faced accusations he had misled the COVID Inquiry<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In a leaked text message from August 2020, he said: “I’m deleting the messages in this group” as they could be “captured in an FOI”.<\/p>\n

Government minister Hannah Blythyn was sacked<\/strong><\/a> for allegedly leaking to the media – allegations she denies.<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru<\/strong><\/a> then withdrew from the Labour government’s cooperation agreement<\/strong><\/a> with the party.<\/p>\n

News website Nation.Cymru, who broke the story, has since denied that Ms Blythyn was its source<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Welsh Conservatives<\/strong><\/a> put forward a motion calling for the publication of the evidence upon which Ms Blythyn was sacked.<\/p>\n

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You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app<\/strong><\/a>. You can also follow @SkyNews on X<\/strong><\/a> or subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/strong><\/a> to keep up with the latest news. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vaughan Gething has announced he is quitting as Wales’s first minister. In a statement, he 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-keir-starmer-vaughan-gething_6500341.jpg?20240325105243","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[1976,2124,2634,1975,1979],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95484,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95482\/revisions\/95484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}