There’s something in the British waters right now – and it’s not Ed Davey on his paddleboard. After Liz Truss in Westminster and Humza Yousaf at Holyrood, could Vaughan Gething be the next leader of a UK government to find himself out of office in a record space of time?
The Welsh First Minister this evening lost a confidence vote in the 60-member Senedd by 29 votes to 27. Labour holds exactly half of the seats with 30 members, with 16 Tories, 13 representatives for Plaid Cymru and a solitary Liberal Democrat. Two of Gething’s backbenchers were off sick and thus missed tonight’s vote, which followed an afternoon of passionate debate in the Welsh parliament.
Even before the vote, Welsh Labour figures close to Gething were arguing that this was not a binding vote and that his real mandate came from the Welsh people. Speaking afterwards Gething said that he was proud to be the First Minister of Wales and plans to ‘carry on’, having served less than 100 days in office.
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