Vaughan Gething rejects calls to return £200k donation

Vaughan Gething has rejected calls to return a £200,000 donation from a company run by a man twice convicted for environmental offences.

The leaders of both Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives have suggested Mr Gething should return the money.

"There's nothing wrong with what we've done," the newly-appointed Welsh Labour leader told Politics Wales.

On Wednesday, Mr Gething is set to be nominated as Wales' first minister - becoming Wales' first black leader.

In 2016, Mr Gething asked Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to ease restrictions on Atlantic Recycling, a firm run by a man twice convicted for environmental offences.

Atlantic Recycling's holding company recently donated £200,000 to Mr Gething's successful campaign to replace Mark Drakeford as leader.

"Eight years ago I wrote to NRW as a constituency member, it is not lobbying - lobbying is a loaded word, as we know," said Mr Gething.

"As a constituency member it is literally your job to represent your constituents, individuals and businesses."

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth told the programme that, regardless if rules were broken or not, "it just doesn't feel right" to keep the money and the "one way to fix that" is to return it.

Andrew RT Davies, Senedd leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said he believed it would be "sensible" for Mr Gething to return the money.

Mr Gething told the programme that he had "only ever asked" how Atlantic Recycling could comply with NRW objectives so that "jobs in the business could be maintained".

It emerged during Mr Gething's campaign that this same company had lodged an application for a solar farm on the Gwent Levels, which would require Welsh government approval.

Asked about this, Mr Gething said: "This is a little bit frustrating, because every serious journalist knows that, in your constituency, you are not entitled to make decisions as a minister.

"The way that the story has been run, with a suggestion that something must be going on - actually it's impossible for me to do that.

"I cannot make a decision as a minister in my constituency."

Asked if he would return the donation, he said: "No. We've done nothing outside of the rules. There's nothing wrong with what we've done."

Mr Davies stopped short of calling for his own party to return millions of pounds worth of donations from a donor embroiled in a race row.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to return the money from Frank Hester, who allegedly said veteran MP Diane Abbott made him "want to hate all black women" and should "be shot", sparking days of fierce backlash.

Mr Davies said: "The party took those donations in good faith… as I understand there are active discussions about what is going to happen with this donations - I am not involved in those discussions."

Mr ap Iorwerth did not give any indication that this issue would impact Plaid Cymru's cooperation deal with the Labour government, agreed by both Mr ap Iorwerth and Mr Gething's predecessors - Mark Drakeford and Adam Price.

Mr ap Iorwerth said it was his role to "point out the weaknesses in Labour's governance" but at the time he wishes to "finish off" the policies that Labour and Plaid have worked on together.

On evidence he gave to the UK Covid Inquiry last week, the pandemic health minister said: "Knowing what we know now we'd make different choices on a number of things."

He said the Welsh government did not have the legal power to cancel the Wales vs Scotland Six Nations match that was called off just 24 hours before kick off in the early days of the pandemic.

"In hindsight, it would have been a really important signal that would have been consistent with all the other things we were doing," he said.

Mr Gething did not indicate any changes he would look to make to controversial Sustainable Farming Scheme, but said the results of the consultation with famers would be taken seriously.

The scheme, which would see farmers will have to commit to having trees on 10% of their land, and earmark another 10% as wildlife habitat, has sparked protests across Wales.

"There's a need to look at what comes through the consultation and take it seriously, which is what people expect," he said.

He said the consultation was "genuine" and that he and the government will be "interested" in what it produces.