Minister repeatedly fails to back Vaughan Gething

Jeremy Miles was defeated by Vaughan Gething in Welsh Labour's leadership contest earlier this year

Welsh Economy Secretary Jeremy Miles repeatedly failed to back the first minister in an interview on Monday.

Asked by ITV Wales if Vaughan Gething was the best man to lead the country, Mr Miles said he would not give a "running commentary".

The former leadership rival of Mr Gething said it had been a "difficult" number of weeks for Mr Gething "as for everybody else". He failed to back the FM's leadership in answers to other, similar questions.

The Welsh government was asked for comment.

Asked if Mr Gething was the best man to lead Wales, Mr Miles said: "I'm not going to give a running commentary on what we've seen in the press.

"It's obviously been a very difficult number of weeks."

ITV asked if Mr Miles had complete faith in Mr Gething. The economy secretary replied: "As I say, it's been a difficult few weeks difficult for the first minister as for everybody else. He'll be looking at how we can get through this as we all are."

Pressed further on whether he had faith in the first minister, Mr Miles added: "I don't think it's helpful to keep making running commentary on the events that we've seen reported in the news."

The minister was quizzed at the launch of the Welsh government's heat strategy.

Mr Miles said the Welsh government was "continuing to deliver for the people of Wales", referring to the launch of Wales' new publicly owned renewable energy developer, and new legislation to boost Welsh language teaching.

Asked whether Mr Gething would be first minister to see both of those things through, Mr Miles did not say if he would or not.

"Look, I'm telling you what we're doing in terms of investments that we're making, right across portfolios of government. There's a lot going on, a lot of deliver for people in Wales and a full agenda ahead for us all," he added.

The interview followed a week of drama in the Senedd where sacked minister Hannah Blythyn denied she was the source of a story about a text message sent by Mr Gething during the pandemic.

The story reported that Mr Gething had told other ministers that he was deleting texts from an iMessage group chat - he denied he did so when the messages emerged.

Mr Gething responded the next day to Ms Blythyn, defending how he handled the affair and said the evidence that the text had come from her phone was straightforward. He defended her sacking again at a tense committee meeting on Friday.

Nation.Cymru, the website that originally broke the story, denied Ms Blythyn was her source. A Welsh government spokesman later said that the administration had been provided an unredacted version by a journalist which had identified the owner of the phone.

Investigation call

Mr Gething's time as first minister has been dominated by rows, mostly connected to Dauson Environmental Group, which donated £200,000 to his campaign.

The company is owned by a man who was twice convicted for environmental offences. Mr Gething has repeatedly said he followed all the rules regarding donations.

Transparency International, a global non-governmental organisation that promotes accountability and integrity, called for the first minister to refer himself for investigation over the iMessage row.

The group's Juliet Swann said: “To ensure a robust assessment of whether ministerial standards of integrity are being followed, Vaughan Gething should appoint an independent advisor to provide much-needed clarity over whether rules have been broken."

She added: "The ongoing tumult caused by these issues is bringing Welsh politics into disrepute and undermining public trust in the Senedd and the Welsh government. A self-referral from Mr Gething can address these issues and help restore that trust.”

In response the Welsh government said: “An unredacted version of the screenshot sent to the Welsh government by a journalist identified the owner of the phone the screenshot originated from.

“The first minister has made it repeatedly clear that he is not prepared to release the unredacted version unless all individuals identifiable through the exchanges agree to its release.”