First minister says he regrets waste donation impact

Vaughan Gething has told the Senedd he regrets the "impact" of his decision to take £200,000 from a company owned by a man convicted of illegally dumping waste.

The first minister argued that he also regretted how the last three months had been reported by the media, but he admitted there had been "real damage" caused to a "range of people".

Mr Gething has been under fire since he took the cash for his leadership campaign, which he won in March.

Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth questioned whether Mr Gething was blaming journalists in his comments.

Meanwhile the Welsh Conservative Senedd leader accused the first minister of the "lowest of the low" for bringing up his own illness absence in the fallout from last week's vote of no confidence.

Mr Gething lost a confidence vote last week after two of his backbenchers - Lee Waters and Hannah Blythyn - were away ill.

At the weekend the first minister said he wanted a "new start".

Mr Gething accepted £200,000 from Dauson Environmental Group, which is owned by David John Neal, who was given a suspended sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste, and another in 2017 for not cleaning it up.

First Minister's Questions in the Senedd has been dominated by questions over Mr Gething's judgement, and the donations, since he won the Welsh Labour contest and replaced Mark Drakeford.

Throughout Mr Gething has said he has followed the rules over donations.

Mr Gething told the Senedd: "Of course, I regret the way that the last three months have been covered and reported, and I regret the impact of the choice I made within all of the rules at the time, and I would not want either myself or any of my colleagues to have had to go through that again.

"I recognise that there has been real damage caused to a range of people in this place."

Mr Gething made the comments under questioning from Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth.

The Plaid leader asked: “It’s been the way it’s been covered, it’s the way it’s been reported?

"I am a former journalist, I am a member of the National Union of Journalists. Are you blaming journalists for this? Are you blaming opposition members for the way that we voted in that vote last week?"

He added: “What we have here is the first minister’s judgment repeatedly called into question”.

Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies accused Mr Gething of the “lowest of the low” for bringing up his own illness absence in the fallout from last week’s vote of no confidence.

Mr Davies told MSs that at one point he said he had been advised to put his affairs in order.

The first minister said: "I think I was referring to the facts".

"The fact is that, for around about three months, we paired in every instance on every vote, and it was the right thing to do because I accept completely that you were not well, not well enough to take part, not well enough to turn on a screen, and that's as it should be".

The Conservative Senedd leader had been ‘paired’ while he was off for several months in 2021 – it meant a Labour member did not take part in votes to compensate for his absence.

The Tories refused to pair for two Labour MSs in last week’s confidence vote, citing proxy and hybrid alternatives, and that the pairing is not normally offered on vote of no confidence.