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.

LAST week, Labour’s new Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Ken Skates, delivered his statement to the Senedd and seemingly reversed Labour’s blanket 20mph speed limit, writes Natasha Ashgar MS.

However, looking closely at what has been said, it becomes increasingly clear that Mr. Skates has played a PR masterclass.

Unfortunately for Wales and the people who have signed the record-breaking half-a-million-strong petition. 20mph is going nowhere and is firmly here to stay.

As time has progressed since Labour’s blanket 20mph policy was introduced last year, public opinion against it has only grown. This disastrous blanket policy has negatively impacted bus services, commuters, emergency services, tourists, residents from all corners of Wales and businesses.

The most concerning aspect of this seemingly public U-turn is that Labour, Plaid and the only Liberal Democrat are all still actively misleading the public, ignoring their plea, petition and calls to rescind even more than before.

Make no mistake about it: Labour will change nothing. The Welsh public has received a lot of warm words, and the press has been quick to report that change is coming. However, no streamlined system exists to create equality amongst councils to revert back and give the public what they want. When all is said and done and when the dust settles, the default speed limit across Wales will remain 20mph.

The Welsh Conservatives have been clear from the start. We would scrap the blanket speed limit and introduce appropriate speed limits in areas where there is clear evidence that they are necessary, such as outside schools, hospitals, and playground areas and revert to 30mph where required.

The Labour Government in Wales is no stranger to anti-motorist initiatives. It has previously banned all roadbuilding and scrapped the relief road for the M4. Despite wafer-thin assurances, it continues flirting with congestion and road charging.

The estimated cost of 20mph is £33 million, a massive amount to spend on such a madcap initiative. Yet, reversing sections of this law will cost an additional £5m. This is an extravagant cost considering the lack of changes we will actually see on our roads.

However, this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

The Welsh Government’s own estimates acknowledge that the policy could impose a staggering cost of as much as £9 billion on the Welsh economy. That substantial amount could be better spent on the failing NHS, a below-par education system (as Wales ranks at the bottom of PISA), or even investing in local public transport services such as buses and train services.

By imposing their punishments on motorists, Labour is strangling economic activity throughout all of Wales.

Blanket 20mph zones and a ban on new roadbuilding before creating a strong, sufficient, and synchronised public transport infrastructure is put in place is nothing short of madness, particularly at a time when Labour-run Transport for Wales (TfW) has come bottom in the UK for overall customer satisfaction and clocked up 1 million minutes of delays last year alone.

Labour’s unexpected change of tack is nothing more than an attempt to curry favour of voters in the run-up to a General Election. Keir Starmer will not want such a divisive issue standing in his way. Yet, with him referring to Wales as a blueprint for what a Labour Government will look like in the UK if he wins the next GE, we can see far more of Labour’s divisive socialist policies becoming law throughout the UK with no light at the end of the road.

In a world where we are seeing huge technological advancements and transport innovation, Wales has had a Labour government in place for twenty-five years who, in the words of Doc Brown from Back to the Future, have firmly decided ‘where we are going, we don’t need roads.’

Natasha Asghar is a Welsh Conservative member of the Senedd for South Wales East and Shadow Minister For Transport.

• Named British Vogue’s Force for Change
• Named as BBC’s 100 women
• Award winner- ‘Devolved Politician of the year 2024’ for her work on the 20mph campaign in Wales.

A senior Pembrokeshire councillor is to be quizzed on what progress has been made in recouping a £200,000 insurance excess paid by the council following the 2022 fire at a Manorbier school.

Manorbier Church in Wales VC School and its adjoining schoolhouse was severely damaged by a fire on October 11, 2022, which broke out in the school roof space.

Pupils and staff were successfully evacuated with no injuries, and a “school from school” was set up in Jameston Village Hall, after a brief period of sanctuary at the nearby Buttyland caravan site.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s insurers have previously said the fire was accidentally started while “hot works” were being carried out by contractors to renew an adjacent flat roof, but, as has previously been stressed, no liability had been accepted to date.

Councillors have previously heard the majority of costs were likely to be met from the council’s insurers, with the caveat of the unknown issue of liability and its effect on the £200,000 insurance excess.

A submitted question, by Councillor Aled Thomas, to be heard at the full council meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council on May 9, will ask Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language Cllr Guy Woodham “to update the chamber on what progress the Cabinet have made in recouping the £200,000 insurance excess paid following the devastating non-fault fire at Manorbier school”.

Councillors have previously been told by Cllr Woodham: “The legal issues are not straightforward but will be robustly taken forward.

“At this stage it’s still subject to legal discussion. The excess will be covered by a fund the council holds for insurance excess.”

He said that, if liability was found or accepted, the council would “pursue for the full maximum claim of the costs associated with the fire”.