First Minister urged to ‘do the right thing’ amid donation controversy

Published

6 months ago

May 6, 2024

A FORMER minister urged Vaughan Gething to “do the right thing” and return a £200,000 leadership campaign donation from a convicted environmental polluter.

Lee Waters, who was the deputy minister for climate change until last month, described accepting the donation from Dauson Environmental Group as unjustifiable and wrong.

He said: “£200,000 is a staggering amount, unprecedented in Welsh politics, and over four times larger than the £45,000 spending cap the Labour Party sets to ensure a fair contest.

“The fact it came from a waste company with a conviction for damaging the Gwent levels, at a time when some of us were fighting hard to protect this sensitive area, really shocked me.”

He made the comments as the Senedd debated Conservative calls for an independent investigation and Plaid Cymru proposals for a cap on donations.

He told the Senedd: “It would not be a sign of weakness to say it was a mistake to take the donation and now all the facts are known, to give it back.

“It can still be done – in my view it should be done – and sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing but you rarely regret it in the end.”

Mr Waters welcomed the appointment of Carwyn Jones, the former First Minister, to lead an internal review of Labour’s election processes, including campaign finances.

The Llanelli MS accused the Tories of double standards, saying two home secretaries, a chancellor and a former prime minister were found to have broken the ministerial code.

He said: “What did Rishi Sunak and the Welsh Conservatives have to say about that? Not a dicky-bird. We can all see through their double standards.”

Andrew RT Davies criticised Vaughan Gething for failing to turn up at the start of the debate on his responsibilities and leaving it to another minister to respond.

He raised concerns about a £400,000 loan to a subsidiary company of Dauson from the Welsh Government-owned Development Bank in the same financial year as the donation.

Stressing that the donation was correctly declared and there was no rule-breaking, the Tory group leader said perception of a conflict of interest has caused considerable public disquiet.

Rhun ap Iorwerth described the First Minister’s “nothing-to-see-here” attitude as at best complacent and at worst contemptuous towards the electorate.

“People will come to their own judgement about his absence this afternoon,” he said.

Plaid Cymru’s leader warned: “This chapter raises broader concern about the fundamental health of our democracy. There is a risk of a poison affecting our politics here.”

Jane Dodds, the Lib Dems’ leader in Wales, agreed that the episode has cast a dark shadow over Welsh democracy as she urged Mr Gething to give the money back.

She argued the wider goal should be to eradicate big money from our politics.

Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru MS for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said some people will perceive that the First Minister’s job was bought as a result of a donation in a close election.

He told the chamber: “No-one should ever be left thinking money talks, that money is able to control the future of our politics, of our democracy.”

Hefin David, the Labour MS for Caerphilly, described the row as a non-issue.

He stressed the donation was properly registered and Mark Drakeford instigated an investigation while he was First Minister, finding no breach of the ministerial code.

Dr David said: “We are, for the first time, asking for a politician who’s obeyed all the rules – demonstrably obeyed all the rules – to be investigated, and I think that is frankly absurd.”

Raising concerns about hypocrisy, he highlighted six-figure donations to Plaid Cymru.

Alun Davies, a fellow Labour backbencher, who represents Blaenau Gwent, advocated introducing a fit-and-proper-persons test for political donations.

Jack Sargeant, the Labour MS for Alyn and Deeside, raised trade unions’ concerns about the potential unintended consequences of a cap on donations.

Jane Hutt, responding for the Welsh Government, stressed there is no link between the donation and any arm’s-length loan decision made by the Development Bank.

She said the First Minister, who took his seat in the chamber more than an hour into the debate just before the vote, has complied with all the relevant rules.

Ms Hutt, who is chief whip and trefnydd, the Senedd’s equivalent of the leader of the house, did not say whether she would have accepted the donation when questioned.

The Conservative motion was narrowly rejected 25-27 following the debates on May 1, while Plaid Cymru’s motion was defeated 11-27 with 14 abstentions.

Campaigners urge Welsh Government to adopt proportional representation for Local Elections

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2024

Tom Sinclair

CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Welsh Government to introduce the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system for local elections, following moves by two councils to shift away from the First Past the Post (FPTP) system being blocked on technical grounds.

Yesterday (Nov 14), Ceredigion Council voted narrowly, with an 18 to 17 majority, in favor of adopting STV. This follows Gwynedd Council’s decision last month, where 65% of councillors backed the move. However, both councils have been prevented from implementing STV due to a requirement for a two-thirds majority under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

In recent consultations, public support for STV has been overwhelming, with over 70% in Gwynedd and 67% in Ceredigion favoring the change. Only Powys Council rejected the proposal, despite 60.5% of its respondents supporting STV. Campaigners argue that the current system deprives voters of representation, citing that over 100,000 people were denied a vote in the 2022 elections due to uncontested seats.

The Electoral Reform Society Cymru (ERS Cymru) highlights the contrast with Scotland, where the introduction of STV for local elections in 2007 has significantly reduced uncontested seats. According to ERS Cymru, Scotland has had fewer uncontested seats in the last four elections combined than Gwynedd Council recorded alone in 2022.

Jess Blair, Director of ERS Cymru, said:

“Decisions made in council chambers affect everyone in those areas, so every vote should count. It’s absurd that councils choosing STV are blocked by a technicality, leaving them stuck with an outdated system that denies representation to thousands. The Welsh Government must act to avoid repeating the undemocratic outcomes of the last elections.”

Campaigners are now calling on the Welsh Government to introduce STV across all councils in Wales, ensuring representation that reflects the electorate’s wishes.

Politics

Alarm over Wales’ domestic violence ‘epidemic’

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2024

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

DOMESTIC violence against women and girls is the scourge of Wales and a national emergency, Senedd Members warned.

Mabon ap Gwynfor said Welsh police reported more than 45,000 cases of domestic abuse in 2022/23 and almost 10,000 sexual offences the previous year, with many more unrecorded.

Leading a Senedd debate, the Plaid Cymru politician challenged a tendency to believe rural Wales is an exception, with domestic abuse “limited” to urban areas only.

“The evidence shows otherwise,” he said. “Rates of domestic abuse in north Wales are higher than those in the city of London.

“North Wales even faces the same level of sexual crimes as Greater Manchester, which has a population five times the size.”

Mr ap Gwynfor added: “I am afraid the election of President Trump in the US is going to make things much worse as he makes misogynistic attitudes acceptable again.”

He said victims wait a year for support in Cardiff or Merthyr but four months in Swansea, asking: “How can we justify someone’s trauma being dependent on a postcode lottery?”

He told the Senedd that 16 children per 1,000 in north Wales are being seen by sexual assault referral centres compared with a rate of 2.9 per 1,000 in London.

Mr ap Gwynfor said the NSPCC found one in five children have experienced domestic violence, with Childline Cardiff holding 4,000 counselling sessions in the past year.

Calling for urgent devolution, he warned that prosecution statistics suggest sexual violence has effectively been legalised, with victims let down and public trust eroded.

Labour’s Joyce Watson said a vigil will be held outside the Senedd on November 25 to mark White Ribbon Day, the international day for ending violence against women and children.

Ms Watson highlighted her party’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, calling for funding from Westminster to further the aim in Wales.

She told the Senedd: “It is a national threat and it is an epidemic. There’s no getting away from that. It’s deep-rooted, it’s wide-reaching.”

Sioned Williams raised the NSPCC’s calls for sustainable long-term funding for specialist support for children and young people who are survivors of domestic violence.

Her Plaid Cymru colleague Luke Fletcher warned of the “corrosive” effect of social media, calling for a crackdown on misogynistic content targeted at young men.

Responding to the debate on November 13, Jane Hutt pointed to progress made in tackling violence against women and girls but she recognised “so much more needs to be done”.

Ms Hutt, who is Wales’ social justice secretary, highlighted horrifying statistics from July showing that two million women in the UK are victims of male violence every year.

She described domestic violence as a national emergency, with one woman killed by a man every three days and the number of recorded offences up 37% in the past five years.

She hailed the 20th anniversary of the Live Fear Free helpline, a free 24/7 service run by Welsh Women’s Aid and funded by the Welsh Government.

Ms Hutt said she raised evidence of failures in the justice system with Jess Phillips during a meeting with the UK minister

Politics

Senedd debates Eluned Morgan’s first 100 days as First Minister

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2024

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

SENEDD members debated Eluned Morgan’s record following her first 100 days, with the First Minister rejecting claims she has failed to stand up for Wales.

Andrew RT Davies led a Conservative debate on the eve of November 14, which marks Eluned Morgan’s hundredth day in office.

He accused the First Minister of letting the country down, pointing to the withdrawal of the universal winter fuel allowance for pensioners and warnings of 4,000 premature deaths.

The leader of the opposition also criticised Labour’s decision to raise national insurance contributions for employers, with unemployment in Wales at 5.3% and rising.

Mr Davies said 4,000 patients have been added to NHS waiting lists since the First Minister took office in August, with a total of 614,000 people now waiting for treatment.

He told the Senedd: “That is a damning indictment of government failure here …. That is not standing up for patients here in Wales, it’s not standing up for clinicians, and it’s not standing up, importantly, for the workforce.”

Rhun ap Iorwerth said Baroness Morgan’s first 100 days have shown little evidence of a change in direction from the Welsh Government.

The Plaid Cymru leader said: “By any objective measure, nothing has fundamentally changed in those 100 days.”

He said Baroness Morgan has no plan to grow the economy nor tackle a crisis in the NHS.

Mr ap Iorwerth accused the First Minister of failing to make the case for replacing the Barnett formula, devolving the Crown Estate, and compensating Wales for HS2 spending.

He said: “I’m afraid that what we’ve seen is Labour in Welsh Government, under the new First Minister, shifting into the mode of defending their masters at Westminster….

“A fundamental difference between Plaid Cymru and Labour is that we will never let Westminster diktat hamper our ambitions for Wales.”

Labour’s Hefin David was unconvinced by the 100-day measure of success, which was coined by former US President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s.

He said: “It worked for him; I’m not sure it’s going to work so much across modern politics, which moves so quickly and so differently.”

He suggested the next Senedd election in 18 months will be a much better yardstick.

The Caerphilly Senedd Member pointed out that Wales’ first female First Minister, from Ely, Cardiff, one of the poorest parts of the UK, succeeded against the odds.

Describing Baroness Morgan as a “listening First Minister”, Dr David joked: “She’s the only First Minister who gives me a cwtch every time I see her. I can see Mark Drakeford getting a little worried there. I’m not expecting anything, finance minister.

“But I do think it demonstrates the warmth of Eluned Morgan.”

Responding to the debate, Eluned Morgan reeled off a list of achievements including £28m to cut waiting times, £13m on better end of life care and a new north Wales medical school.

She said £7.7m has been invested in a specialist burns and plastic surgery centre at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital, serving ten million people from Aberystwyth to Oxford.

Baroness Morgan lauded a “landmark” £1bn investment in the redevelopment of Shotton Mill, Deeside, protecting 137 jobs and creating 220 more.

She claimed the Labour Welsh and UK Governments also secured a better deal for Tata steelworkers, accusing the Tories of failing to budget for a £80m transition fund.

“This is a lengthy list,” she said. “But it could be longer and it will be longer as we continue to deliver…. The first 100 days demonstrates how Welsh Labour is delivering real investment, real jobs, real support for communities – not promises and pledges but delivery.

“I am so proud of everything this government has already delivered since I became First Minister and I’m optimistic about what we can achieve as we move forward.”