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Vaughan GethingMS
Official portrait, 2021
Minister for the Economy
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2021
First Minister	Mark Drakeford
Preceded by	Ken Skates
Minister for Health and Social Services
In office 19 May 2016 – 13 May 2021
First Minister	Carwyn Jones Mark Drakeford
Preceded by	Mark Drakeford
Succeeded by	Eluned Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Ely
Deputy Minister for Health
In office 11 September 2014 – 19 May 2016
First Minister	Carwyn Jones
Minister	Mark Drakeford
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Rebecca Evans
Deputy Minister for Tackling Poverty
In office 26 June 2013 – 11 September 2014
First Minister	Carwyn Jones
Minister	Jeffrey Cuthbert
Member of the Senedd for Cardiff South and Penarth
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2011
Preceded by	Lorraine Barrett
Majority	10,606 (29.2%)
Personal details
Born	(1974-03-15) 15 March 1974 (age 50) Lusaka, Zambia
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Spouse	Michelle Gething
Alma mater	University of Wales
Occupation	Solicitor, trade unionist
Signature
Website	www.vaughangething.wales

Vaughan Gething (born 15 March 1974) is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician serving as Minister for the Economy since 2021. He previously served as the Minister for Health and Social Services from 2016 to 2021. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2011. In December 2023 he became one of two candidates in the Welsh Labour leadership election to replace Mark Drakeford.

Early life

Gething was born in Zambia in 1974, where his father, a White Welsh vet from Ogmore-by-Sea in Glamorgan, met his mother who is a Zambian. Gething describes his father as "a white Welsh economic migrant". When he was two years old, he moved to Monmouthshire, Wales, with his family and has three brothers and a sister. His father eventually found work in Dorset, England, where Gething was brought up.

He studied at Beaminster Comprehensive and Sixth Form in Dorset, followed by Aberystwyth University where he read Law and graduated in 1999, and then going onto the University of Cardiff Law School, University of Wales. Gething became President of Aberystwyth University Guild of Students and the first Black president of the National Union of Students Wales.

Professional career

Having completed his training as a solicitor in Cardiff in 2001, with the trade union solicitors Thompsons, Gething chose to specialise in employment law. He became a partner in Thompsons in 2007.

In 2008, at the age of 34, Gething became the youngest President of Wales TUC, also becoming the first mixed race person in the role.

Political career

Gething joined the Labour Party when he was 17, to campaign in the 1992 UK general election. He contested Mid and West Wales in the inaugural elections to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 for Labour and was not elected. He was a councillor from 2004 to 2008, representing Butetown electoral ward on Cardiff Council, having been elected with a majority of two votes. Gething was selected as the Welsh Labour candidate for the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency in the Senedd. Lorraine Barrett, who had represented Cardiff South and Penarth since the Senedd's creation in 1999, had announced her intention to stand down at the 2011 election. At the Senedd election on 5 May 2011, Gething increased the Labour vote with a swing of 12.5%. At 13,814, his share of the vote was over 50%, giving him a majority of 6,259 over the Welsh Conservative Party candidate, Ben Gray, placed second. At the following 2016 Welsh Assembly election, Gething once again increased his majority in terms of vote share.

Following the 2016 election, First Minister Carwyn Jones promoted Gething to the Welsh Cabinet as Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport.

Gething did not support Jeremy Corbyn in either the 2015 or 2016 Labour Party leadership election (against challenger Owen Smith) but stated in a 2017 BBC Radio Wales interview that he would still like to see Corbyn as Prime Minister. "I want a Labour prime minister - and that means Jeremy Corbyn being prime minister." ... "I don't think it matters whether I'm a fan or not - it matters whether I think he can do the job in running the country" Gething said.

Gething, alongside Baroness Eluned Morgan and Mark Drakeford, was one of the three contenders in the 2018 election for the leadership of Welsh Labour, but was defeated by Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford.

Drakeford subsequently reappointed Gething as Health Minister, with the position renamed as Minister for Health and Social Services. On 13 May 2021, Gething was promoted to Minister for the Economy, replacing Ken Skates.

In December 2023 Gething became one of two candidates in the Welsh Labour leadership election to replace Drakeford as party leader and Wales' First Minister.

Controversies

Election complaint by Betty Campbell

Gething won an election for Cardiff's Butetown ward on 10th June 2004, by a margin of two votes over candidate Betty Campbell. Following the election, Campbell sent a complaint letter to Cardiff Council alleging that Gething had infringed election rules by handing out leaflets to voters as they entered polling stations and telling them how to vote.

Walking away mid-interview

In August 2017 Gething walked away mid-interview on ITV Wales television when questioned by journalist James Crichton-Smith over his decision not to hold a public inquiry into Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board following allegations that an employee had sexual assaulted vulnerable patients.

Zoom incident

On 22 April 2020, Gething was caught swearing about fellow Labour MS Jenny Rathbone in a virtual session of the Senedd. Gething failed to mute his microphone as he told an unknown person "What the fuck is the matter with her?" during the Zoom meeting. Rathbone had been asking the Minister questions about the Welsh Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the incident, both the Welsh Conservative leader, Paul Davies and Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price called on Mark Drakeford to dismiss Gething as Minister for Health. BBC Wales reported that Labour MSs were also "very angry" over Gething's actions.

Personal life

Gething and his wife Michelle live in Penarth, where he has lived since 2011. He is a member of the trade unions GMB, UNISON and Unite.

External links

• Official website
• Biography – Senedd website

References

1. "Lib Dem Williams named in new cabinet". BBC. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
2. "Lewis named as education minister". BBC. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
3. Davies, Daniel (9 November 2018). "Welsh Labour's mystery runners?". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
4. ^ "Wales elections > Cardiff South and Penarth". BBC News. BBC. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
5. ^ Owen, Paul (3 August 2009). "Black Welshman aims to take the fight to the BNP". The Guardian. Manchester: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
6. ^ "Vaughan Gething wants to be Welsh Labour's Sadiq Khan". British GQ. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
7. "Alumni at the Senedd". Aberystwyth University. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
8. ^ "Vaughan Gething Assembly selection 2011" (PDF). Welsh Labour. 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
9. "About Vaughan – Vaughan Gething MS | Cardiff South & Penarth". Vaughan Gething MS | Cardiff South & Penarth. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
10. Crecsi, Elena (15 March 2013). "From student unions to the Senedd and Westminster, how do today's youth become tomorrow's AMs and MPs?". Wales Online. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
11. ^ "Morgan urges Labour to hold firm". BBC News. BBC. 23 May 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
12. Gething, Vaughan (28 October 2018). "Vaughan Gething: In Black History Month, I'm proud to be supported by BAME Labour". LabourList. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
13. "Mid and West Wales". BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
14. ^ "Vaughan Gething-about". Vaughan Gething. 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
15. Blake, Aled (6 May 2011). "Assembly election: Meet the incoming AMs". WalesOnline website. Media Wales Ltd. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
16. "Welsh Government | Vaughan Gething AM". gov.wales. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
17. "General election: 'Doesn't matter if I'm a Corbyn fan'". BBC News. 19 May 2017.
18. "Owen Smith to challenge Corbyn for Labour leadership". The Guardian. 13 July 2016.
19. "Jeremy Miles officially joins race to succeed Mark Drakeford as Labour leader in Wales". Sky News. 18 December 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
20. "'He broke the rules'". WalesOnline. 24 June 2004. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
21. "Health Secretary walks away from questions over calls for inquiry into health board's actions". ITV. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
22. ^ "Coronavirus: Welsh health minister caught swearing about Labour AM". BBC. 22 April 2020.
23. "Plaid Cymru Statement". 22 April 2020 – via Twitter.
24. Paul, Davies (22 April 2020). "Paul Davies (Leader of the Welsh Conservatives) Statement" – via Twitter.
25. "Vaughan Gething AM: Minister for Health and Social Services". GOV.WALES. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

• 1974 births
• Living people
• Politicians from Dorset
• Politicians from Cardiff
• Labour Co-operative members of the Senedd
• Wales AMs 2011–2016
• Wales MSs 2016–2021
• Wales MSs 2021–2026
• Alumni of the University of Wales
• Councillors in Cardiff
• Black British politicians
• 21st-century Welsh lawyers
• Zambian emigrants to the United Kingdom
• Zambian people of Welsh descent
• Welsh people of Zambian descent