First Minister Vaughan Gething in vote of no confidence blo

The vote came after a growing level of dissatisfaction in his leadership in the Senedd following his following a highly controversial political donation and the collapse of the co-operation deal between Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Whilst the vote is non-binding it puts the future of the First Minister in doubt after being in office only a matter of months.

The vote passed in the Senedd 29 votes to 27 and was considered controversial as tow Labour members were ill and the Conservatives did not allow them to have their votes carried in their absence.

Mr Gething was visibly moved to tears in the debate in the Senedd when colleague Vikki Howells spoke of her support for him.

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On the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies MS, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said: “Vaughan Gething has lost the confidence of the people of Wales.

“He has lost the confidence of the Senedd.

“The only person who is still batting for Vaughan Gething is Keir Starmer.”

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS agreed and said: “The Senedd has spoken and now Vaughan Gething must go.

“Any attempts of holding onto power would go against the established norms of our parliamentary democracy.

“Without the mandate of the Senedd, the First Minister has no right to stay in office, Welsh democracy has had its say and now he must go.”

Mr Gething has been plagued by numerous scandals in the last few months.

There have been many concerns over a large political donation from a man convicted of environmental offences during his run to be Welsh Labour leader.

He also refused to show any evidence to explain why he sacked Senedd member Hannah Blythyn from his government, after he accused her of leaking messages to the media.

His record as Health minister during the pandemic has also been under scrutiny

A message posted to a ministerial group chat in August 2020 by Mr Gething said he was “deleting the messages in this group”.

Mr Gething claimed the leaked message was from a section of an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and related to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group.

He told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him, but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.