(Bloomberg) -- First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething said he is resigning after four members of his government quit in protest at his handling of a row over campaign donations, in a blow to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his new Labour administration.
“I have taken the difficult decision to start the process of stepping down,” Gething — also a Labour politician — said Tuesday in a statement on X. “I will now discuss a timetable for the election of new leader of my party.”
Gething’s resignation came after three ministers and his top legal adviser quit his government, calling for him to go, following a weeks-long row over £200,000 ($254,000) of campaign donations from a company run by an individual previously prosecuted twice for environmental offenses, as well as disagreements over his dismissal of a cabinet colleague.
“We cannot continue like this,” Jeremy Miles, who quit as cabinet secretary for the economy, said in his resignation letter. “It’s essential that we begin to repair the damage immediately, and I have reached the conclusion very regrettably that this cannot happen under your leadership.”
Miles was joined in quitting by the culture secretary, Lesley Griffiths, Julie James, who held the housing brief, and Counsel General Mick Antoniw. In her letter, Griffiths cited Gething’s “sacking of a ministerial colleague for leaking when no formal leak inquiry had taken place” as another factor, a reference to the dismissal in May of another minister, Hannah Blythyn.
Gething’s departure is a blow to Starmer, who had stood by him and talked up Labour’s electoral support in Wales after the July 4 general election. While the Welsh administration is elected separately, the prime minister’s opponents are likely to point to the disruption there as evidence that Labour can’t be trusted to bring the sort of stability to central government promised by Starmer after years of at times chaotic rule by the Conservatives.
Gething was the first Black leader of a European nation, rising to prominence as Wales’ health minister during the Covid pandemic.
His administration soon became embroiled in scandal. His struggles date back to the leadership contest he only narrowly won to succeed former First Minister Mark Drakeford. His political opponents zeroed in on the campaign donations, and in May, Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru ended its cooperation deal with the devolved Labour government, adding to the political pressure.
“A growing assertion that some kind of wrongdoing has taken place has been pernicious, politically motivated and patently untrue,” he said in a statement on Tuesday, offering no apology for his management of the political turmoil that engulfed his administration since he took office in March.
Last month, Gething lost a non-binding confidence vote, and Tuesday’s resignations proved his final undoing.
“My integrity matters. I have not compromised it,” Gething said. “I regret that the burden of proof is no longer an important commodity in the language of our politics.”
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