BLACK Welsh Labour activists have slammed recent attacks on First Minister Vaughan Gething by the Welsh media as “racially influenced.”
Welsh Labour’s black, Asian and minority ethnic committee statement was published on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday by chairman Mahaboob Basha and vice chairwoman Ruby Sivagnanam.
The statement said: “For so many BAME people in Wales the last few weeks will have been disturbing, unsettling and yet very familiar.
“In the Welsh media the treatment of Vaughan Gething has gone well beyond what one can reasonably call fair scrutiny.
“The treatment of the First Minister over recent weeks will mean more BAME people thinking Welsh politics, and public life in general, is not for them.
“That is why we are speaking out, standing firmly behind Vaughan Gething, and calling on all in our movement to be allies, not bystanders.”
The questions about Mr Gething surfaced during his leadership campaign after online news site Nation.Cymru reported that Mr Gething had received donations of £200,000 from Dauson Environmental Group, whose owner David Neal had been convicted twice by the courts for environmental offences.
Mr Gething said the donations had been declared to the Senedd and the Electoral Commission in line with the rules.
The issue has dominated each session of First Minister questions since Mr Gething was elected in March and disquiet has mounted within Welsh Labour.
Member of Parliament for the Cynon Valley Beth Winter has called for an independent inquiry and for Mr Gething to pay back the donation.
Former transport minister Lee Waters also spoke out in the Senedd saying the £200,000 should be repaid and said: “The issue is not whether the paperwork was correct, it’s whether the judgement was correct.”
Mr Gething called an emergency meeting of his Senedd members on Friday evening to discuss Plaid Cymru’s early withdrawal from the co-operation agreement which should have run until December this year.
Reports from the meeting emerged that some members had claimed the attacks on Mr Gething were racially motivated.
Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “I remain deeply concerned that the First Minister has failed to pay back the £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign from a company convicted of environmental offences, and believe it demonstrates a significant lack of judgement.”
