My election victory was never accepted

Ousted First Minister Vaughan Gething has said he tried to keep Welsh Labour united but people were not willing to accept his election as leader.

In his first interview since being forced to resign he said he tried to be “kind” and “generous”.

On Tuesday, just four months after being elected Welsh Labour leader, Mr Gething announced he was standing down when four people dramatically resigned from his government.

“I have tried to do the right thing for other people and for the country,” he told BBC Wales.

Mr Gething, who intends to stay on over the summer while Labour chooses his successor, beat Jeremy Miles in the leadership contest that finished in March, becoming the first black leader of a European nation.

His time as first minister has been dominated by controversy, mostly over £200,000 he accepted for his campaign from a company owned by a man convicted of environmental offences.

On Thursday another supporter of the first minister – the third to do so this week – told BBC Wales they would be uncomfortable with former Economy Secretary Jeremy Miles as Welsh Labour leader.

Mr Miles was one of the four individuals who stood down on Tuesday.

Party officials are due to meet this weekend to discuss the timetable to replace Mr Gething as leader.

Speaking on Thursday, he said: “Everyone has to look at themselves and what they’ve done.

“Members across the movement in Wales had a one member, one ballot contest, which I succeeded… There was an opportunity for all of us to get behind that result, as has happened after every other leadership contest. That hasn’t been possible.”

Mr Gething said he “deliberately brought people in from different wings” of the party to his government.

“I went about asking for a review into donations to the party as well as the Senedd, as other people have asked for.”

The first minister said he tried to keep the group united: “I’ve done everything I can to be kind, to be generous to other people.

“People have not been prepared to accept the membership result with me as the leader and in less than four months it’s not possible for me to continue.”

He said he tried to do the right thing “even in the really difficult choice to remove Hannah Blythyn from the government”.

He also claimed it was “nonsense” that he could repay the donation.

“I don’t know about you… but I don’t have a spare £200,000 lying around.”

He said it would have been “inappropriate” for him to have a financial relationship with Jenny Rathbone, the Labour politician who offered to loan him the money to pay it back.

A source close to Mr Miles has previously said he was likely to run in the upcoming Welsh Labour leadership contest, but two supporters of Mr Gething have claimed that Mr Miles cannot not unite the group.

A third supporter of the first minister told BBC Wales on Thursday that Mr Miles would “never, ever be forgiven” and was seen as “integral to what happened” to Mr Gething.

Asked what happened if he won, they added: “Then we’ve got a real problem, haven’t we? I don’t know where it would end. He would find it extremely difficult to pull together a cabinet.”

There were probably two people that could unify the 30 politicians, the source said. “Either Huw Irranca-Davies or Eluned Morgan.”

But they preferred Ms Morgan: “I just think if we’ve now got to go through an election and we have a very competent, capable and experienced woman who is prepared to do it, we should back her.

“It’s about time we had a woman doing the job.”

No candidate is yet to officially declare their interest.

Opponents of Mr Gething had told the BBC prior to the resignations that the first minister had not needed to take the £200,000 donation – and that none of the difficulties had been Mr Miles’ fault.

A Jeremy Miles supporter said on Wednesday: “The people who did their best to block Jeremy last time are up to their old tricks, it seems. Let the members decide.”

On Radio Wales Breakfast, on Thursday Vikki Howells, chairwoman of the Labour group in the Senedd, called for a female leadership contender.

Ms Howells, a strong supporter of Mr Gething, said: “A lot of members said to me during the last contest they were saddened by the fact there wasn’t a woman in the race.

“We definitely have strong, credible candidates, so yes I would like to see a woman in the race this time.”

Additional reporting by Daniel Davies and Mark Palmer.