Andrew RT Davies is the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives and an MS for South Wales Central.
I’ll be honest. At the best of times, politics in Wales is spectacularly predictable. The First Minister shows up to the Chamber every Tuesday and Wednesday. He always represents Cardiff or, at a push, Bridgend. His Senedd Members are always well behaved and, while they might once in a while pretend to have their own views, they vote with the whip.
The opposition may put pressure on the Welsh Government, but in the end, the left-leaning media, the blob and the other opposition parties join Labour in protecting the status quo.
So it’s not hyperbole to say that the Welsh Conservatives recently started a political tsunami in Cardiff Bay.
Last Wednesday afternoon, only a few weeks after he took up the role as First Minister, Vaughan Gething found himself sat in the Senedd Chamber, listening and shaking his head as Members debated his political future.
The Welsh Conservatives had put down a motion of no confidence in Gething, and he knew while we were making our case that he was going to lose it.
Two of his Labour backbenchers, one he had sacked from the Welsh Government and the other who had been publicly critical of him, would be unwell. They would not be making use of the Senedd’s remote voting system (which was brought in during Covid-19 and been retained); they would not be applying for a proxy vote, which is available to Members who are long-term ill or are welcoming a new addition to their family.
It was the culmination of weeks to hard work from the Welsh Conservative Group. We pushed at the right times, we held back at others. We showed unity in our purpose, and the results speak for themselves. During the debate, while desperate Labour backbenchers who supported the First Minister accused us of all sorts in unbecoming, unimpressive speeches, Welsh Conservative MSs sat quietly, waiting to continue the political autopsy to Gething.
As much as those Labour backbenchers would scrunch their faces and do their mental gymnastics, they couldn’t get away from the facts: Gething took £200,000 from a convicted criminal for his leadership campaign.
His own colleagues called him out for it. They told him to pay it back. The Welsh Conservatives pushed for him to hold an independent inquiry to dispel any perceptions of a conflict of interest. He didn’t listen.
Then, leaked messages showed that Gething, who was Health Minister during the pandemic, had told his colleagues that he would be deleting messages to avoid being captured by FOI transparency laws; this is despite the fact he told the Covid Inquiry he hadn’t deleted messages.
Again, in his arrogance, the First Minister did not feel the need to explain this discrepancy properly.
Finally, he sacked a minister from his front bench for leaking those messages to the media. This charge the strenuously denies, and has called the First Minister’s integrity into question. With the minister denying his allegation, we made calls for the First Minister to publish the evidence, because taking his word for it is no longer an option.
As you can probably guess from the emerging pattern, Gething refused. These three key issues are why his judgement, transparency and honesty have been under the microscope in the Senedd.
Patience had stretched to breaking point, so we put down a vote of no confidence in the First Minister. It was always going to be a tight vote, and in the end one or two Labour MSs would have to abstain, vote against their leader, or not show up at all.
And that’s what happened. The game was up: the Senedd had united behind the Welsh Conservative motion against Gething. But again, even when he could not command the confidence in the Senedd, he would not listen.
He has, however, vowed to stay on. He is politically finished, leading a paralysed Welsh Government. While the Welsh Government should be fighting to get waiting lists down, Gething is busy flogging a dead horse by fighting for his political life.
Why is this important to the wider UK? Because the attitude of Labour in Wales shows the sense of entitlement and arrogance that develops then they are in power. Even when his party, his Parliament, and the Welsh people have all turned against him, Gething feels he can continue, regardless of the damage it does to our public services.
If Labour win this election, and if they win by a clear majority, we can expect the same contempt from Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street. Indeed, when Emily Thornberry was asked whether Starmer would stay on if he lost of a vote of confidence, she simply said it wasn’t going to happen.
Starmer has backed Gething all the way through. After all, he has called Labour in Wales as his “blueprint” for what Labour in power looks like.
While it’s been a trying few years for many of us who care passionately about Conservative values, it is now more important than ever to mobilise our vote in the face of an arrogant, entitled and privileged North London urban elite.
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Author: Andrew RT Davies MS
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