‘He’ll come after us’: Wales leader Vaughan Gething braced for Sunak attacks

Vaughan Gething is the first black leader of a European country. His election last month as Labour leader and so First Minister of Wales – means none of the UK’s four administrations is currently led by a white man.

It is arguably a sign of progress that these things have passed with so little comment but that’s not to say that Gething doesn’t feel their weight.

“Some people definitely want me to fail,” the 50-year-old tells the i. “Others are desperate for me to succeed…But they want to know they’re going to be proud of you in six months’ and six years’ time, that you’re not just going to be a pop quiz question.”

The margin of his victory was narrow – he won 51.7 per cent of the vote to Jeremy Miles’ 48.3 per cent – and he was heavily criticised for taking a donation from a waste management firm repeatedly fined for environmental offences.

He refuses to say he regrets taking the Atlantic Recycling Ltd donations because, he says, it would negatively affect a firm that employs people in his constituency.

And he hints that the race was narrower than expected because he didn’t fight as aggressively as he could for the sake of party unity.

“The last few weeks were difficult in the contest,” he admits. The controversy over his campaign donation came after a draining appearance at the Covid Inquiry (he was health minister in Cardiff during the pandemic).

“I decided that I wouldn’t want a campaign that looked as if we were fighting an election [against] a different party. Because when you do that, you’re prepared to say and do things to expand the dividing line.”

In his first few weeks in the job Gething has been keen to signal compromise – both inside Labour (he handed Miles a plum job) and with voters admitting that the Welsh government mishandled efforts to greatly expand the number of roads with a 20 mph limit.

He says he will stick with the overall objective of reducing injuries and fatalities but give local residents much more of a say.

It’s a similar story when it comes to post-Brexit farm subsidies. After an early effort enraged the rural community the scheme is now back on the drawing board.

Both issues have been weaponised by the Conservatives as part of their efforts to convince voters in the rest of the country with what ‘Labour-run Wales’ portends about life under Keir Starmer.

It is an awkward fact for Labour that waiting lists and A&E times are worse in Wales than England.

A recent report, meanwhile, highlighted how far Welsh children in poorer areas are behind in their schooling. The gap is “not acceptable” Gething admits.

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The new Welsh leader expects Rishi Sunak to intensify the attacks in the months to come but says he relishes the fight. “Let’s be grown-ups – he’s going to come after us in the run up to the election.”

“I’m not sure it is effective. I’m not at all persuaded that people who are worried about the cost of living crisis where they can pay their rent or their mortgage when they can buy food, pay their rent, are really going to say, ‘Well forget about all because the Prime Minister is attacking Wales today.”

In any case, he says, the country has got a positive story to tell. “It’s part of my job is to stand up for Wales and to push back against what is coming from the Tories.”

From pioneering new sources of energy to recycling at which Wales is a world leader – Gething is keen to project the country as a forward-looking dynamo that will be all the more effective when paired with a Labour government in Westminster.

He makes no great claims to know Starmer. “I’ve met him a few times. And I get on well with him in the meetings I’ve had. He’s always been really clear that if we win the general election, then there will be a completely different relationship with respect to the relationship between the UK government and First Ministers of devolved national governments in the UK. And that would be a sea change.”

He shared student politics with the likes of Rachel Reeves, Jonnie Reynolds and Jon Ashworth. He says he would like to learn Welsh but doesn’t labour the point.

Gething’s father, a Welsh vet met and married his mother in Zambia where Vaughan was born. The family settled in Dorset after his father’s job offer at a practice near Abergavenny was withdrawn when they realised he had a black family.

At school the young Gething excelled at cricket – appropriately enough for a politician he bowls off-spin – but says he got into scraps because of racist name-calling.

He met his wife, Michelle, at the law firm they worked for. The two have a young son. Gething and his sister share caring responsibilities for his mother who lives near them in south Wales.

While his life has inevitably changed since his election, Gething says he is determined not to become detached from the realities faced by voters. “It’s very easy to get disconnected.”