Vaughan Gething to become next first minister of Wales after winning Welsh Labour leadership race
Vaughan Gething is set to become Wales’s next first minister after winning the Labour leadership race.
Mr Gething, 50, will also become the first black man to hold the post, and the first black leader of any European country.
He is expected to be confirmed as the country’s first minister on Wednesday when a vote will be held in the Senedd.
He will succeed Mark Drakeford, who has held the position since 2018.
Mr Gething beat his only rival, the education minister Jeremy Miles, winning 51.7% of the vote.
After the result was announced in a lecture hall at Cardiff University, Mr Gething said: “Today, we turn a page in the book of our nation’s history. A history we write together.
“Not just because I have the honour of becoming the first black leader in any European country – but because the generational dial has jumped too.
“Devolution is not something I have had to get used to or adapt to or apologise for. Devolution – Welsh solutions to Welsh problems – that’s in my blood. It’s what I’ve always known.”
UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed Mr Gething’s election as “an historic moment that speaks to the progress and values of modern-day Wales”.
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Labour have 30 of the Welsh parliament’s 60 seats and are currently in a cooperation agreement with Plaid Cymru, who lend support on certain government policies.
Mr Drakeford announced in December that he would step down in the new year.
Mr Gething paid tribute to Mr Drakeford as he addressed members of the Labour Party upon winning.
“What is often said about Mark is he is a details man,” said Mr Gething.
“But he was the right leader at the right time during the pandemic and it is true that we will be forever in his debt to his forensic approach to public policy.
“Not a lot is said about a heart that went into it to the deep and unwavering duty to defend Wales, as a community, as a people, as a family of families.”
Asked by Sky News how he felt about being the first black first minister in Europe, he described it as a “historically different day”.
He added: “This hasn’t happened before… I’m the only person that looks like me to represent a Welsh constituency in either of our national parliaments. So it shows that progress is more difficult historically.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulated Mr Gething.
Writing on X, he said: “I am committed to working together constructively with a relentless focus on growing the Welsh economy and levelling up communities.
“This is a chance for a new Welsh administration to focus on what matters to people in Wales.”