Daniel Martin
Fri, 17 May 2024
The end of the agreement with Plaid Cymru is a blow to Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Labour First Minister - Francesca Jones/Reuters
The Labour-run government in Wales was thrown into crisis on Friday after Plaid Cymru pulled out of a cooperation agreement with the party.
The Welsh nationalists said they had decided to go following the campaign finance scandal of Vaughan Gething, the recently elected First Minister.
They said they were also angry about a string of policy reversals, as well as Mr Gething’s decision to sack a minister for leaking.
The agreement was established following the Welsh assembly elections in 2021 in which Labour gained 30 out of the 60 seats, one below a majority.
It ensured that Plaid would vote with Labour on a series of policy areas to ensure a majority in the Senedd, and was due to last until December.
Without Plaid Cymru to support it, Labour finds itself as a minority administration in Cardiff Bay, which may prove troublesome when it seeks to pass new laws.
Mr Gething has already been in office for eight weeks - a week longer than Liz Truss managed as prime minister in 2022.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid, said he remained “deeply concerned” over a donation made to the First Minister’s leadership campaign and was worried about Mr Gething’s decision to sack Hannah Blythyn, his minister for social partnership, following the leak of a phone message to the media which she insisted she was not behind.
“I am worried by the circumstances around the decision to sack a member of the Government this week relating to matters that should be in the public domain already,” he said.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, says he was worried about the First Minister's decision to sack a minister - Matthew Horwood/Getty Images Europe
Mr Gething said: “The cooperation agreement was about mature politics, working together on areas where we agree. While it was always a time-limited agreement, we are disappointed Plaid Cymru has decided to walk away from their opportunity to deliver for the people of Wales.”
The First Minister thanked Sian Gwenllian and Cefin Campbell, Plaid’s two designated members for the agreement.
“By working together we have achieved a great deal, including free school meals for all pupils in primary schools, providing more free childcare, introducing a radical package of measures to create thriving local communities, helping people to live locally and addressing high numbers of second homes in many areas of Wales,” he said.
“We will now look closely at how we can progress the outstanding co-operation agreement commitments, including the Welsh Language Education Bill and the White Paper on Right to Adequate Housing and Fair Rents.”
On Thursday, the First Minister said he had “no alternative” but to ask Ms Blythyn, Labour member for Delyn, to leave his government.
She insisted she was “clear and have been clear that I did not, nor have I ever leaked anything” and was “deeply shocked” at her dismissal.
It followed news reports 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”.
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.
Sustained pressure
The Welsh Labour leader has come under sustained pressure in recent weeks, with repeated calls for an investigation into donations he received while running to be Welsh Labour leader.
Earlier this month, he survived a Senedd vote calling for an independent inquiry into a donation from a company run by a man twice convicted for environmental offences.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that more than £31,600 from Mr Gething’s leadership campaign would go to the Labour Party.
Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Tory leader, told the broadcaster it is “odds on” there will be a no confidence vote in Mr Gething, following his turbulent time as First Minister since taking up the office on March 20.
Plaid Cymru’s withdrawal from the co-operation agreement could lead it to move against him in such a vote, but Tory leader Mr Davies was not forgiving of the Welsh nationalist party either.
“Together, Labour and Plaid have worked together to divert resources away from the people’s priorities and towards vanity projects like putting more Senedd Members in Cardiff Bay, and have been hand in glove on policies like the destructive sustainable farming scheme and 20mph.
“This move from Plaid means nothing and the Welsh public won’t be fooled,” he said
.Plaid Cymru ends Senedd cooperation deal with Welsh Labour in latest blow to Vaughan Gething
Andy Gregory
Fri, 17 May 2024
Plaid Cymru has ended its cooperation deal in the Senedd with Welsh Labour, in the latest blow for newly-elected first minister Vaughan Gething – whose opponents claim could soon face a no-confidence vote.
The three-year deal had been due to end in December 2024 – but Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth announced on Friday that the agreement had been terminated with “immediate effect”.
Mr ap Iorwerth said he was proud of how the agreement had “demonstrated a new way of doing politics which focused on areas of policy which impact people’s everyday lives”.
But he cited “deep concerns” over donations to Mr Gething’s campaign, his decision to sack minister Hannah Blythyn on Thursday, and “the emerging approach of the government in relation to some elements of the co-operation agreement”, including the recent decision to delay Council Tax Reform.
The collapse of the deal comes after the Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies claimed it was “odds on” that a no-confidence motion to force the first minister’s resignation would soon be brought forward by opposition members.
Reacting to Plaid’s announcement on Friday, Mr Davies insisted the dissolution of the party’s Senedd agreement “means nothing” after three years working “hand in glove” with Welsh Labour “to divert resources away from the people’s priorities”, adding: “This attempt to save face will not work.”
Describing the co-operation agreement as being “about mature politics”, Mr Gething thanked the deal’s two designated Plaid members and said: “While it was always a time-limited agreement, we are disappointed Plaid Cymru has decided to walk away from their opportunity to deliver for the people of Wales.”
Mr Gething has come under sustained pressure in recent weeks, with repeated calls for an investigation into donations he received while running to be Welsh Labour leader prior to his election in March.
Earlier this month, he survived a Senedd vote calling for an independent inquiry into the £200,000 donation he took from a man convicted of environmental offences. And on Thursday, the BBC reported that more than £31,600 from Mr Gething’s leadership campaign would go to the Labour Party.
Vaughan Gething expressed his ‘gratitude’ to Hannah Blythyn for work she had undertaken as minister for social partnership (Ben Birchall/PA)
That news emerged as Mr Gething sacked his minister for social partnership Hannah Blythyn following the leak of a phone message to the media – which the “deeply shocked” MS for Delyn insisted she was not behind.
A report on the Nation.Cymru news website last week featured a message posted to a ministerial group chat by Mr Gething at the height of the pandemic in August 2020, stating that he was “deleting the messages in this 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.
The first minister told plenary last week that the leaked message was from an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and related to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group. He said the message did not relate to pandemic decision-making and denied that it contradicted his evidence to the inquiry.
Announcing the dissolution of the cooperation deal agreed in December 2021, Mr ap Iorwerth said on Friday: “I am proud of the way in which the agreement demonstrated a new way of doing politics which focused on areas of policy which impact people’s everyday lives.
“These include rolling out free school meals for all primary school pupils, expanding the free childcare offer for thousands more families, taking radical action to address the housing crisis, steps to safeguard the Welsh language, the creation of a national energy company Ynni Cymru and more.
“Working collaboratively was a constructive response to the chaos and uncertainty of Brexit and the Covid pandemic and the harm caused by the UK Conservative Government. We will continue to try to secure the delivery of policies agreed as part of the co-operation agreement.
But citing a determination to hold the Welsh Government “firmly to account”, he continued: “I remain deeply concerned that the First Minister has failed to pay back the £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign from a company convicted of environmental offences, and believe it demonstrates a significant lack of judgment.
“Money left over has now been passed on to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I am worried by the circumstances around the decision to sack a member of the government this week relating to matters that should be in the public domain already.
“I am also concerned by the emerging approach of the government in relation to some elements of the co-operation agreement, including the decision to delay action in supporting the poorest families in our communities, as evidenced most recently by the decision to delay Council Tax Reform.”
Additional reporting by PA
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