Nick Robinson grills Vaughan Gething on new lockdown
Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething has sensationally sacked a minister, and hinted she was responsible for leaking a message that sparked scandal around him deleting WhatsApps during the pandemic.
In a statement out of the blue this morning, Vaughan Gething said he had asked the Minister for Social Partnership, Hannah Blythyn to leave Government.
He added: “I would like to put on record my gratitude for the work the Member for Delyn has led in Government since 2017, most notably her leadership on the LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales, the fire and rescue services review, and our valuable work with social partners”.
While this statement did not allude to the real reason why Ms Blythyn had been sacked, a subsequent statement from the First Minister revealed the true reason.
He added: “Having reviewed the evidence available to me regarding the recent disclosure of communication to the media… I have no alternative but to ask Hannah Blythyn to leave the Government”.
READ MORE: Vaughan Gething slammed by Covid families over claims of ‘misleading’ inquiry
Vaughan Gething has sacked a minister he believes responsible for leaking a WhatsApp (Image: Getty)
On May 7, a leaked WhatsApp message suggested Mr Gething had misled the Covid inquiry regarding the deleting of WhatsApp messages.
In a statement to the inquiry at the start of its probe, the now-First Minister said he had WhatsApp’s automatically deleted messages setting turned on, meaning key records of his time as Welsh health minister during the pandemic were missing as evidence.
His inquiry “statement of truth” was signed by him, pledging that the claims were true, and acknowledging that proceedings may be brought against anyone who makes false statements.
However the website Nation.Cymru claims to have received a leaked WhatsApp showing Mr Gething admitting to deleting messages to avoid them being released by a Freedom of Information request.
Nation.Cymru, which has published a screenshot of the text, says it was sent in August 2020, while Wales was still subject to Covid restrictions following the first lockdown.
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Hannah Blythyn was asked to leave government (Image: Labour Party)
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Mr Gething was seen to have texted: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FOI and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”
During an inquiry hearing this March, Mr Gething agreed that retaining messages is “important [so] the public can see not just the choices we made but why we have made those choices”.
Responding to today’s surprise sacking, the Welsh Tories said: “Vaughan Gething’s decisions during the Labour leadership campaign are catching up with him”.
“Just weeks into his time as First Minister, Vaughan Gething has had to sack somebody from his Cabinet, which is almost unprecedented in recent memory in Wales, for leaking to the media about him.
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“Vaughan Gething needs to prove quickly that he is capable of governing Wales, because as it stands his government is being stretched to breaking point by internal divisions.”
When the WhatsApp was leaked, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the revelation was “shocking” and showed a “blatant disregard for honesty and transparency”.
“His misleading of the UK Covid Inquiry is not only outrageous but indicative of a systemic failure within the Welsh Labour Cabinet which has been complicit in allowing this.”
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