What can the Tories say to Welsh Labour about Gething – try not to be like us? | Welsh Politics

Look on the bright side. With 118 days as Welsh First Minister behind him, Vaughan Gething has comfortably done two Liz Trusses and more. The Conservatives have lowered the threshold for failure considerably. Then again, just under four months is still – how can I put it nicely? – suboptimal. Especially when your term includes the defeat of a motion of no confidence some time ago that you chose to ignore. That’s not the sort of record that inspires confidence. Especially when it’s your own party that’s out to get you.

On Tuesday morning, the Welsh Labour government reached a critical point when three ministers and a senior adviser resigned over Gething’s continued leadership. The announcement of the resignation was not so much on the wall as in front of his eyes. Within an hour, Gething had succumbed to the inevitable and announced his resignation. At lunchtime, he made a personal statement to the Senedd ahead of First Minister’s Questions.

Gething came out of the war. 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 felt underrepresented. No one could have done more for his country than he did. First as a trade union lawyer, then as a Senedd campaigner and finally as a government minister for 11 years.

He has always played by the rules and has been discouraged by pernicious rumours that were all false. He seemed sincere. But he clearly missed the irony when he said that “the burden of proof is no longer a prerequisite”. It was only last week that Gething sacked Hannah Blythyn, the social partnership minister, for leaking a WhatsApp message in which he suggested deleting messages. The Nation Cymru website insisted that Blythyn was not the source of the leak. Despite this, Gething remains convinced that she was. No presumption of innocence for Blythyn.

“I feel personally hurt by everything that happened,” he said. I can’t disagree with him. I’m sure he does. But he didn’t seem ready to admit his share of responsibility for his downfall. Personal responsibility was a step too far. There was nothing he could have done differently.

He has been a model First Minister. He has left Wales a better place, he concluded. Hmm. If by “better” you mean a government in crisis and facing a second leadership contest this year. A crisis entirely of its own making. Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives have been grateful observers. Gething’s harshest criticism has come from within his own party. And then there have been the knock-on effects. The embarrassment of Keir Starmer, who throughout the recent election campaign had given Gething his unequivocal support.

Some – but not all – Labour MPs applauded politely as Gething sat down. It was hardly a ringing endorsement. We then moved on to questions on affordable housing and child poverty – all of which were asked in a polite, adult manner: no shouting or yelling in the Senedd – and it was the turn of the Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies.

“I wish you luck,” he began, pleasantly enough. He had offered to shake Gething’s hand that morning in the lift, but the Prime Minister had declined. It was rude. Then he got to the point. Why had Gething accepted a £200,000 loan for his leadership campaign from a company run by a man convicted of environmental crimes?

Gething had no answer to that question. He would not – or could not – explain why he had accepted five times the sum he needed. He may not have reciprocated, but he must know that it makes a bad impression. If the Tories had done that, Gething would have been the first to object. Instead, he simply brushed it all aside, as he always had before. Nothing to do with it. 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 questioned whether Welsh Labour was fit to govern, given the scandals and power struggles that never ended. That was a bit of an exaggeration. Conservatives are not the type to lecture on stupidity and leadership changes. But perhaps that was Davies’ point. Try not to be like us.

Plaid Cymru MP Rhun ap Iorwerth paid tribute to Gething’s public service but said it was right that he should go. It was as much about perception as it was about seeking the truth. The loan seemed wrong. So did the deletion of the government’s WhatsApp messages. Simply insisting that everything was fine and there was nothing to see here was not enough. Wales deserved a better explanation than the one it had been given.

Hell, even Welsh Labour thought it was dodgy and that Gething had not provided a proper explanation. At best, it was gross incompetence, which was itself a matter of resignation. So why not call 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 all the Welsh seats at Westminster. Fortunately, Gething was in no mood to comply and the session ended. The drama is over for now.

Yet Gething has conducted himself with more dignity and refinement than two of the last three British prime ministers. Both were forced to resign in disgrace by their own parties. After throwing a tantrum because she was not re-elected as an MP – the people of Norfolk did not deserve her – Liz Truss has now turned up at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. She is a political wreck adrift without a purpose. She does not know what she is doing there. She means nothing to Republicans. All she can do is pray that a right-wing cable network will ask her to say something that everyone can ignore. It doesn’t get any lower than that.

But that doesn’t mean Boris Johnson isn’t trying. After spending the weekend looking like a bloated ghost at an Indian billionaire’s wedding, Johnson also went to Wisconsin, where he too is completely unwelcome. He spoke to an audience of about eight people in a side room. And half of them were unconscious. He is now nothing more than a political parasite. An irrelevant person who feeds off right-wing populists like Donald Trump and JD Vance. He hopes for a blessing from the next US president. Hard to believe, Boris continues to disparage the prime ministership long after he was forced to resign.

Compared to these two, Gething appears as a model of decency.