Welsh Labour crisis as revelations about leadership donations spark inquiry demand

Question Time: Vaughan Gething grilled on his ‘choices’

Labour’s new Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething is under mounting pressure as an already rumbling donor crisis sparks calls for a formal probe after further revelations.

Mr Gething was hammered during his recent leadership race when it emerged that a £200,000 donation he accepted came from an individual previously handed two suspended sentences for illegally dumping waste in a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Mr Gething pocketed the huge sum from Dawson Environmental Group, which is owned by David John Neal, who was accused of “substantial and serious pollution”.

The row nearly cost the leadership victor of his job, as furious Labour Welsh Assembly members warned of huge “disquiet” over him accepting the donation.

Despite calls for the cash to be returned, Mr Gething has ignored criticism, insisting that all donations were “checked and then filed properly with the Electoral Commission and indeed declared to the Senedd”.

Vaughan Gething is under pressure already over his donations (Image: Getty)

Yesterday the First Minister was plunged into a new crisis of confidence, when it emerged that Dawson Environmental Group received a £400,000 taxpayer-funded loan from a bank Mr Gething was overseeing.

The donations to Mr Gething’s campaign were made less than a year after DEG pocked the enormous loan by the Welsh Government’s development bank.

Mr Gething, who served as Wales’ economy minister prior to taking the top job from Mark Drakeford, ran the department responsible for overseeing the operations of the bank.

The Development Bank of Wales (DBW) lent the money to Neil Soil Suppliers LTD, and was used to fund the purchase of a new solar farm.

Both the Bank and Welsh Government have insisted that Mr Gething was not involved in the decision, and Dauson says none of the £400,000 cash was used when donating to the Welsh Labour leader’s campaign.

Mr Gething became First Minister of Wales in March (Image: Getty)

However David TC Davis, the Government’s Welsh Secretary, has now called on Mr Gething to publicly answer crucial questions about the growing row.

Mr Davis said: “Does the Labour First Minister still think it was acceptable to take hundreds of thousands of pounds in a donation from a company that was receiving hundreds of thousands more from the taxpayers of Wales?”

“Also, at what point did he know they had sought funding from a Welsh Government entity for which he was the minister responsible?

“For the sake of transparency, we urgently need answers to these serious questions.”

Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies has said there must be an “independent investigation” into a possible breach of the ministerial code.

Writing to the First Minister, Mr Davies said that the decision to accept the money “gives rise to a serious conflict of interest”.

He added: The scandal is having a corrosive effect on government workings”.

At the weekend, Mr Gething’s own appointment to replace him as economy minister said he “would not have accepted” the £200,000 donations from Dawson Environmental Group given its run-ins with the law.

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “Welsh ministers do not take decisions on individual investments provided by the DBW.”