Welsh Labour is facing a constitutional crisis after Labour Assembley Members met in secret to discuss the forthcoming coronation of Vaughan Gething.
This evening, it has been revealed that a £200,000 donation to Mr Gething during the recent leadership election now risks upending his major promotion to the top job in Welsh politics.
During the race to replace Mark Drakeford, Mr Gething raked in the huge sum from a firm owned by a man convicted of environmental crimes.
Now Labour Senedd members (MSs) have warned Mr Gething that there is a huge level of “disquiet” within their party over his receipt of the cash.
According to the BBC, 14 MSs met this evening to discuss the “growing feeling in the Labour group that the donation should be returned”.
The new First Minister-elect’s very position could now be in danger, as it’s reported some Welsh Assembley Members may even refuse to vote for him this Wednesday to replace Mr Drakeford if he doesn’t return the donation.
Due to the recent suspension of Plaid Cymru MS Rhys ab Owen, the Government has a temporary majority of just one with its 30 MSs in the Assembly.
The row risks Labour being accused of hypocrisy after they recently hammered Rishi Sunak over the Tories’ donor Frank Hester, demanding he return the £10 million after it emerged he said Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
Mr Gething received the £200,000 donation from Dauson Environmental Group, which is owned by David John Neal.
Mr Neal was handed suspended sentences in 2013 and 2017 – of three months and 18-weeks respectively – for illegally dumping waste in a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Cardiff Magistrates Court heard the “substantial and serious pollution” leaked toxic liquid into the water.
Four years later, he received the subsequent suspended sentence for failing to remove the waste.
Mr Gething has thus far defended his donation, saying all donations are “checked and then filed properly with the Electoral Commission and indeed declared to the Senedd”.
However, this evening senior Conservative MP Sir Robert Buckland told the Express he sympathises with Labour MS demands that he returns the cash.
Sir Robert said: “Now he is set to become First Minister, questions about this donation are entirely appropriate”.
“Given the circumstances of the donation, it is entirely understandable that some Labour MSs feel uncomfortable with the funding.
“Mr Gething needs to come clean about his relationship and what, if any, guarantees he has made with this particular donor.”
Any unspent campaign funds by Mr Gething, or his opponent Jeremy Miles, will be given to the wider Labour Party.
Labour members backed Mr Gething by a slim 52:48 margin, with figures suggesting he won over party members by an even thinner margin, but was helped by votes from trade unions and other groups.
