Welsh Labour vows to carry on as Vaughan Gething loses vote of no confidence

Daniel Green & James Moules    5th June, 2024,

First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething has refused to resign after losing a confidence motion in the Welsh Parliament this afternoon.

The Conservatives have put forward the vote of no confidence following criticism of donations received by Gething’s campaign for the leadership of the Welsh Labour Party.

Gething, who was visibly emotional during the motion debate, lost the no confidence vote in part due to two Labour colleagues being ill. He lost the motion by 29 votes to 27.

With Labour holding 30 of the 60 seats in the parliament, Gething would need all of his Labour colleagues to back him.

A Flourish election chart

However, the chair of the Labour group in the Senedd Vikki Howells earlier told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that two members are unwell and will be unable to vote.

During debate on the motion, Howells, accused the Conservatives of trying to “shift the spotlight from their own record of abject failure.”

She added: “I believe it would be a travesty for this non-binding Tory gimmick of a motion was to be used to subvert democracy.”

Gething has come under fire over a campaign donation from a company owned by an individual who was previously convicted of environmental offences.

Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan, said: “You must know deep down this is wrong, and you must regret accepting the money.

“It’s not too late to stop hiding behind the rules, and loophole in them. It is not too late to apologise.”

Gething has previously signalled that he would not stand down as First Minister if he lost the vote.

A Labour spokesperson told LabourList: “Today’s motion is a political stunt from the Tory party aided and abetted by Plaid Cymru.

“The motion does a disservice to the Senedd. If the Tories and Plaid believe that they together represent the views and values of the people of Wales, they should submit a vote of no confidence in the government.

“These games have a real life impact. Today it meant that Wales was not fully represented at the D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth.

“Vaughan is now heading to Normandy to represent Wales at tomorrow’s commemoration event. Vaughan is focussed on delivering for our NHS and the economy and helping to return the UK Labour Government Wales is crying out for.”

Why is the First Minister of Wales facing a no-confidence vote?

Vaughan Gething’s 77 days in office have been plagued by scandal, with concerns over donations and leaked messages to the media.


FIRST MINISTER OF WALES VAUGHAN GETHING IS FACING A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE (BEN BIRCHALL/PA)

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GEORGE THOMPSON1

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Since Vaughan Gething became the leader of Wales in March his time in office has been plagued by scandal.

Questions continue to be raised over a £200,000 donation to his Welsh Labour leadership campaign, while a row over a leaked message led to him sacking one of his ministers.

This led Plaid Cymru, which has been in a co-operation agreement with the Government, to withdraw support.

Mr Gething has been First Minister for 77 days, having succeeded Mark Drakeford in March.

He has been under pressure over a donation from the Dauson Environmental Group, which is owned by David Neal, who has twice been convicted of environmental offences.

Mr Gething took the £200,000, which was the largest individual donation in Welsh government history, during his bid to be Welsh Labour leader.

The decision led to questions about his judgment, including from his own benches, with MS Lee Waters saying he was “deeply uncomfortable” about the situation.

Concerns about a possible conflict of interest with the money coming from a company which was loaned £400,000 by the Welsh government-owned Development Bank of Wales (DBW) then arose.

The loan from the DBW was given to Neal Soil Suppliers – a subsidiary of Dauson – in 2023 to help purchase a solar farm, at a time when Mr Gething was economy minister.

It also emerged during the leadership campaign that Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales (NRW) on behalf of one of Mr Neal’s companies in 2018.

Mr Gething has always insisted that he cannot take any decision relating to Dauson – which is based in his constituency – and the DBW is entirely independent of ministers.

He has also stressed that no rules were broken when he took the money.

But Plaid cited the donation as one of the reasons for ending its co-operation agreement in the Senedd with the Welsh Labour administration.

Mr Gething’s dismissal of the minister for social partnership, Hannah Blythyn, following the leak of a phone message to the media was also highlighted by Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth in his decision to end the agreement with Labour.

Ms Blythyn strongly denied leaking anything and said she was “deeply shocked” at her dismissal.

The First Minister’s decision followed a report on the Nation.Cymru news website which featured a message posted to a ministerial group chat in August 2020 by Mr Gething, stating that he was “deleting the messages in this group”.


He said the leaked message was from a section of an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and related to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group.


Mr Gething previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him, but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.



He denied the leaked message contradicted the evidence he had given to the inquiry, adding that it did not relate to pandemic decision-making but “comments that colleagues make to and about each other”.

Following the collapse of the deal between Plaid and Labour, the Welsh Conservatives submitted a motion of no confidence in the First Minister.

The motion is not a formal confidence vote and will be non-binding.

However, it would be deeply embarrassing for the First Minister were he to lose, and would indicate that he does not have the support of the Senedd.

When Humza Yousaf, the former SNP First Minister of Scotland, faced a similar vote he stepped down from his post ahead of it taking place.

Since the vote was called, Mr Gething has faced fresh questions about Mr Neal and his donation.

On Monday, a BBC investigation uncovered that one of Mr Neal’s companies was under a new criminal investigation by NRW over noxious smells at a landfill site in Pembrokeshire, South Wales.

But Mr Gething has insisted he could and should not have known about the latest NRW investigation, insisting it would have been “inappropriate” for him to know.

Current European elections as important as 1989, says Tusk at Warsaw rally

JUN 5, 2024 | POLITICS

Thousands gathered in Warsaw on Tuesday for a rally organised by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) to commemorate the anniversary of the partially free elections in 1989 that paved the way for the fall of Poland’s communist regime.

Addressing the crowd, Tusk declared that this week’s European elections would be as important as those 35 years ago and warned of the continued threat of Russia, which has been linked by the Polish authorities to a spate of recent sabotage, espionage and cyberattack cases in Poland.

“I know it is difficult for everyone to understand, but there, in the Kremlin, the possible political capture of Brussels is more important than the capture of Kharkiv,” said the prime minister, referring to the Ukrainian city currently being targeted by Russia.

Tusk argued that if Poles go to the ballot, Poland will be able to maintain its independence and remain part of the European community. “Provided that we are as mature as we were 35 years ago on 4 June,” he said.

“Just as when we ended the Soviet occupation of Central Europe, now we are all focused on making Poland strong and united and making Europe strong and united,” Tusk said. “It is also a fight to prevent war from coming to Poland and the European Union.”

Tusk also hit out at his political opponents from Law and Justice (PiS), which ruled Poland from 2015 until December and is now the main opposition party.

He declared that the list of candidates PiS has put forward for the elections – who include two former ministers who were convicted of abuse of power but later pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally – look more like “wanted lists”.

According to Tusk, 30,000 attended the rally in Warsaw’s historic Castle Square. City hall, which is under the control of KO, estimated 25,000-30,000 were present. However, analysis of aerial images by Onet, a leading news website, indicated that only around half that number were present.

Attendance is markedly lower than an event organised on the same anniversary by Tusk last year, while he was still in opposition, when hundreds of thousands of people took part.

PiS politicians criticised Tusk’s rally for the low turnout and accused him of lying and sowing hatred. One of the convicted ex-ministers standing in this week’s elections, Mariusz Kamiński, said that the event was characterised by “pure hatred and frustration”.

“Poor attendance and storytelling. This will no longer pass. The Polish people are not stupid. They were fooled on 15 October [at the parliamentary elections that brought Tusk to power], but they won’t fall for his lies again,” said former PiS minister Jacek Sasin.

The former prime minister in the PiS government, Mateusz Morawiecki, criticised Tusk for campaigning while many parts of Poland have been suffering this week from major flooding.

“The whole of Poland is struggling with storms and flooding,” he wrote on X. “And what is Donald Tusk doing? He is intensely active on Twitter and busy with the election campaign…When PiS was in power, the most important thing for us was the safety of Poles, not elections.”

 UK

Blocked Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen confirms she will stand as independent

Sky News
Wed, 5 June 2024 




Faiza Shaheen, who was blocked from representing the Labour Party in the general election, has announced she will stand as an independent.

Ms Shaheen, who initially won the Labour nomination for Chingford and Woodford Green, was dropped as a candidate for the London constituency after she allegedly liked a series of social media posts that downplayed antisemitism accusations.

Yesterday she announced she had resigned from Labour, whom she accused of embodying a "hierarchy of racism".


She said she was weighing up whether to stand as an independent in Chingford, and on Wednesday afternoon, confirmed that decision.

In a post on social media, she said voters in her constituency felt "disenfranchised by Labour's decision to remove me", adding: "I feel it would be impossible for the party to win here without a local candidate, rooted in the community, and that such a voice is vitally needed."

Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen announces independent run for parliament

James Moules  

5th June, 2024

Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen, who was barred from standing following a probe into her social media use, has announced she will run as an independent in the general election.

Shaheen, who was due to stand for Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green, yesterday announced her resignation from the party claiming she had faced “unfair treatment”.

She has now announced her bid to stand in the same constituency as an independent.

In a statement posted on social media, she said: “I am standing here to win, to beat the Conservatives, to finish what we started.

“I am standing to give a voice to my community – the community that made me and put their faith in me.”

READ MORE: Shaheen: Deselection shows members ‘mean nothing’ as she quits Labour

Chingford and Woodford Green in north London is the constituency of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith – but is widely seen as a target for Labour.

Shaheen contested the seat for the party in 2019, coming within three percentage points of beating Duncan Smith.

Shama Tatler has since been selected to fight the seat for Labour in this year’s general election.

She posted on X (formerly Twitter): “On July 4, Chingford and Woodford Green faces a simple choice. Change with Labour, or five more years of Tory failure and chaos.

“We need less rhetoric, and more results. Time to get on with the job.”

A Labour spokesperson previously told LabourList regarding their candidate selections: “We have selected a fantastic group of candidates in place for the General Election on Thursday 4 July.

“They will be campaigning across the country to bring Labour’s message of change to voters.

Now Faiza Shaheen resigns from Labour

LABOUR HUB EDITO

“Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen, who was barred from standing for Chingford and Woodford Green last week, has resigned from the party,” reports Labour List. “In a statement posted on social media, Shaheen described her deselection as ‘cruel and devastating’ and claimed she had face ‘unfair treatment’ by the party.”

“Just two days after learning of my removal, Labour imposed a new candidate, someone not known or supported by most local members with no links to our community,” Faiza Shaheen said in her resignation statement. “Today’s national executive committee was the last chance for the party to recognise its mistake. Unfortunately it failed to do so.”

Her statement concludes: “I will be deciding my next steps and will make an announcement tomorrow.”  It can be read in full here.

Earlier today, seven Slough councillors were reported to have resigned from the Party over the treatment of Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen and the Party’s position on Gaza. The councillors at Slough Borough Council said arguments over whether the Abbott and Shaheen could stand for election highlighted “institutional racism” in Labour.

Responding to Faiza Shaheen’s resignation, a Momentum spokesperson said: “Once again, Keir Starmer’s hyper-factional war on the left has created an almighty mess for Labour. In Faiza Shaheen Labour had a respected, popular, local candidate democratically selected by local Party members. But instead of supporting her, Starmer’s allies decided to purge this campaigner against inequality on spurious grounds and parachute in one of their own clique from outside the constituency. Outrageously, the grounds cited to block Faiza included her discussion of her own experiences of Islamophobia within the party, in a textbook case of institutional racism. Whatever comes next, Keir Starmer owns it.”

The group tweeted: “Labour looked set to win this seat off the Tories, replacing Iain Duncan Smith with a respected campaigner on inequality, a popular local candidate. But once again, Party came before country for Team Starmer.”

Today’s National Executive Committee did, however, endorse Diane Abbott, following a huge campaign in her support, which forced an important climbdown from Labour’s leadership. Others on the left, who many feared might be blocked unfairly by the leadership, were also endorsed, notably Apsana Begum, who was  confirmed as Labour candidate for Poplar and Limehouse after local members wrote to the NEC yesterday demanding the Party confirm her candidacy.

JUNE 4, 2024

Image: Faiza Shaheen. Author: FromMorningToMidnight, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

UK

Overnight poll shows Starmer beat Sunak on every issue during TV debate

The survey paints a very different picture to the narrative doing the rounds that Rishi Sunak came out on top following the debate.


by Jack Peat
2024-06-05

THE GENTLEMAN ON THE LEFT IS WEARING AN OFF THE RACK SUIT,
THE GENTLEMAN ON THE RIGHT IS CLOTHED BY KINGSMAN OF SAVILLE ROW


An overnight Savanta poll has revealed that Sir Keir Starmer bested Rishi Sunak on every single issue discussed on last night’s live TV debate.

The leaders of the two main parties clashed in their first debate on the General Election campaign, arguing over issues including tax, the NHS, immigration and the cost of living in a debate that at times seemed bad-tempered, as the two men were repeatedly told to stop talking over each other.

In his opening pitch to voters on ITV, the Prime Minister sought to draw dividing lines with Labour as he claimed the party would “raid” pension pots and hike taxes.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir questioned the timing of the July 4 vote, arguing Mr Sunak had called a summer polling day because he “knows” inflation and energy prices will take a turn for the worse in winter.

The Labour leader mockingly dubbed the Prime Minister “the British expert on tax rises” after Mr Sunak’s repeated insistence that Sir Keir would raise the burden.

A snap poll carried out by YouGov appeared to suggest Sunak had come out on top following the debate – if only by a marginal amount.

But new research carried out by Sevanta overnight suggests the Labour beat his opponent on every issue discussed, painting a very different picture.

Savanta said that on the issues, its survey respondents gave Sir Keir wins on immigration (45 per cent to 37 per cent for Mr Sunak) and on defence and security (43 per cent to 41 per cent).

The Labour leader was well ahead on the NHS and public services (63 per cent versus 25 per cent), plus the economy and cost of living (52 per cent to 36 per cent).

“According to our overnight panel, Starmer wins on the detail, but Sunak is much closer in the most important ‘who won the debate’ metric,” Savanta’s Political Research Director Chris Hopkins said.

“Presentationally, it felt like the Prime Minister had the upper hand at times – in particular towards the end of the debate – and although our figures suggest he lost narrowly, he probably still outperformed expectations,” he said.

Sir Keir also beat the PM on every personality-based question posed by Savanta, including: who came across as most honest (54 per cent to 29 per cent), who gave the most thoughtful answers (53 per cent to 35 per cent) and who remained the calmest (51 per cent to 36 per cent).

‘STOP LYING’ trends on social media following Tory’s tax claim

The £2,000 tax claim has been likened to promises of £350 million a week for the NHS trotted out by Vote Leave in the Brexit referendum.

by TLE
2024-06-05 12:53
in Politics



The first leader’s debate of the General Election has been marred by accusations of untruthfulness after the Conservatives claimed a Labour government would lead to a tax rise of £2,000 for every working household.

Rishi Sunak repeatedly claimed Labour’s spending plans would result in tax rises on working households during ITV’s head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.

However, it has emerged a senior official at the Treasury warned the Conservatives not to say civil servants were behind their central claim, raising questions over its credibility.

The figure has been calculated on the basis that there is a £38.5 billion “black hole” in Labour’s spending plans, which is the equivalent of £2,094 for each of the 18.4 million working households in the UK.


But it is based on a number of assumptions and spurious calculations, with the number being compared to the £350 million a week pledge made by Vote Leave during the Brexit referendum.

Following the live TV debate, ‘STOP LYING’ has been trending on X (formerly Twitter) as a number of people blast the use of misleading figures.

Here’s a feel of the reaction so far:

Related: The new 350 million a week? Tories £2k tax claim gets shredded

We fact checked the ITV election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, from taxes to immigration - here's what you need to know

By Alexander Brown
Published 5th Jun 2024, 


The leaders of the UK’s two biggest political parties, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer clashed on Tuesday night.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak clashed over the economy, immigration and the NHS in a feisty first TV general election debate.

The Prime Minister attacked Sir Keir over tax rises, while the Labour Leader ridiculed Mr Sunak over NHS waiting lists. Both men made a series of claims about their own credentials and each others, with varying relationships with the truth. Here are some of the claims, and how they stack up.


Tax

Both leaders made a series of questionable claims on Tuesday evening.

Far and away the most tetchy argument was Rishi Sunak’s claim that under Labour there would be “£2,000 higher taxes for every working family”. The Prime Minister said this was based on independent analysis of Labour's spending plans by the civil service.

However, it is not true, doesn’t come from independent analysis, and the Prime Minister and his ministers were warned about this days ago.

On Wednesday morning, it emerged the chief Treasury civil servant wrote to Labour two days ago saying the Conservatives’ assessment of their tax plans "should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service".

The government also say the figure relates to a £38.5 billion “black hole” in Labour’s finances, but this is based on a lot of assumptions. While the full Labour finances are not yet worked out due to a lack of manifesto, it is not verifiably true, and does not come from an independent source.

For his part, the Labour leader claimed there have been 26 tax rises under the Conservatives, but given they’ve gone up and down hundreds of times, it’s unclear where this figure came from.

Sir Keir also claimed it was Tory policy to get rid of National Insurance altogether, costing £46bn. While it would cost that, the Prime Minister has not said he’d do this in the next parliament, it’s instead a “long-term ambition”.

NHS waiting lists


One of the more uncomfortable moments for Mr Sunak was a debate about NHS England waiting lists, with the audience openly laughing at him when he insisted they were going down.


However, he’s not necessarily wrong. Non-emergency waiting lists are falling month on month, which suggests it’s true. But the total figure of more than 350,000 is still higher than the equivalent period from a year before. Last September, waiting lists rose to a peak of nearly 7.8 million.

It’s also 600,000 higher than when Mr Sunak became Prime Minister. So the truth supports both arguments, which isn’t helpful.

Immigration


Discussing migration, the Prime Minister claimed small boat arrivals are down a third over the past 12 months. While that's true year on year, they're actually up 38 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Defence

One area where we can say with certainty if something is accurate was Mr Sunak’s claim Labour hasn’t matched the Tory pledge to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).In actuality Labour has said this, with the only difference being the pledge is “as soon as resources allow”, whereas the Conservatives have promised to deliver it by 2030.