Gething plays down public concern about donations

The public are less concerned about Vaughan Gething’s Welsh Labour leadership campaign donations than about other issues, the first minister has said.

He faced his third first minister’s questions in the Senedd having to defend himself over receiving £200,000 from a firm owned by a man previously convicted of environmental offences.

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies said the “average punter in the street" had "serious questions”.

But Mr Gething said the public would not “rally to the Tories' banner” over political funding.

The news came as former first minister Carwyn Jones confirmed that a review of future Welsh Labour leadership contest rules would look at a cap on donations.

Mr Jones told BBC Wales that limiting donations was "clearly an issue".

Cardiff-based Dauson Environmental Group made two donations of £100,000 to Mr Gething.

The business is run by David John Neal, who was given a suspended prison sentence of three months in 2013 for illegally dumping waste. Four years later he received another suspended sentence of 18 weeks for not removing it.

Both the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru will force votes on the issue on Wednesday, calling for an independent investigation and a cap on donations respectively.

Mr Gething has refused to hold an independent probe, or pay the money back.

Defeated leadership rival Jeremy Miles, now the economy secretary in Mr Gething’s government, has said he would not have accepted the money.

On Tuesday afternoon Mr Davies told the Senedd: “The fact of the matter is the average punter in the street does have serious questions over this particular issue.

“It’s coming up time and time again over why £200,000 and what was expected in receipt of that £200,000.

“Are you failing to read the Welsh public's mind on this particular issue, and not coming forward and commissioning that independent inquiry?”

Mr Gething earlier told the session he “cannot and will not make any kind of ministerial choice around that company”.

He replied to Mr Davies: “I don't think the public will rally to the Tories banner when it comes to how politics should be funded.

Citing polling, he added: “The public are most concerned and most obsessed with the cost of living crisis, they’re concerned with the future of the UK and Wales, they’re concerned with how well funded their public services are, and they’re concerned with the sort of economy we could have.”

Mr Gething listed Tata Steel’s Welsh centres: “If you went to Port Talbot, or the Llanwern or to Shotton or to Trostre, you wouldn’t find people obsessing about the issue of the member wants to raise… they’re concerned about the issue of the future of their jobs.”

During the session, it was highlighted by the Conservatives that Mr Gething had discussed a company that gave him a campaign donation without mentioning the gift.

Veezu donated £25,000 in February.

Responding to concern from Julie Morgan to an ITV Wales story about taxi drivers from Veezu refusing to take or charging extra for a guide dog, Mr Gething said it was “positive that Veezu… had removed that person who refused to carry your constituent”.

Mr Davies later said: “I believe the owner of that taxi firm contributed to your leadership campaign first minister.”

He wrote to Senedd Presiding Officer Elin Jones, who chairs proceedings in the chamber, asking her to "review the record and ensure all appropriate declarations of interest are made".

Soon after winning the leadership, Mr Gething announced Welsh Labour would hold a review into its rules, led by Carwyn Jones.

“I have been asked to look at future leadership contests, things like are they too long, how should we deal with donations – should there be a cap, should there be a process for dealing with them in a way that hasn’t been done in the past, that’s what this is about,” Mr Jones said.

“It is not about looking at what’s happened in the past or what any individual has done in the past.

"That’s not what the remit of this committee will be.”

Mr Jones described the length of time that Welsh Labour leadership contests took as “gruelling” and said they probably did not need to be so long.

Asked if donations could be capped in future, he said: “Clearly we will look at it, but it’s not as easy as that in terms of how these things can be taken forward.

“It is clearly an issue, but we’ll be listening to views in the party to understand how we can improve that process in terms of who should donate, in terms of whether there should full examination of donations, should there be a limit on donations with individuals?”

Labour’s political opponents described Mr Jones’s appointment to lead the review as the party marking its own homework.

But the former first minister said they “misunderstood” what the review was set up to do.

“It is not designed for example to be a kind of separate ministerial code investigation,” he said.

“It is an internal process to look at how the party can better operate internally in any leadership contest that we have in years to come.”

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth urged Labour MSs to support his party’s motion in the Senedd calling for a cap on donations.

He said: “They have the opportunity this week to align themselves with the people of Wales who would not approve of such an eye watering sum of money to one politician."

This was Vaughan Gething’s third first minister's questions, and the third where opposition parties have brought up donations to his recent leadership campaign.

It isn’t going away.

Mr Gething’s latest response doesn’t draw a line under it, but both Mr Gething and the opposition parties are making a political calculation around what the public thinks of the row.

The first minister thinks that we – the public – have bigger fish to fry and that his opponents are “obsessing” about the issue. His opponents think that this doesn’t pass the smell test and that there still questions that would best be answered by an independent inquiry.

Both Plaid and Conservatives have donations debates on Wednesday and, although Labour MSs are being instructed to vote with the government, will any who have private concerns decide to voice those in public?