Labour dismisses no confidence vote in Gething as Tory "stunt" Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservative leader, says the vote in the senedd reflects badly not just on Vaughan Gething, but on Keir Starmer too. Senedd Members have backed the Welsh Conservatives’ motion of no confidence in Vaughan Gething. Both Gething AND the Labour Party took cash from the donor who caused this stink. This isn’t just about Vaughan Gething. There are serious questions for @Keir_Starmer too. But Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, says the vote is just a stunt. Today’s Senedd motion is a political stunt by the Conservatives, supported by Plaid Cymru. More Tory chaos. Labour remains entirely focused on the issues that matter to working people across Wales and Britain, and delivering a UK Labour government. Early evening summary The Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, has lost a no-confidence vote less than 12 weeks after taking office, following a series of scandals that have called into question his judgment and transparency. Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of deliberately lying when he claimed Labour’s spending plans would increase taxes by £2,000, saying the prime minister’s tactics during Tuesday night’s TV debate showed he was dishonest when put under pressure. Faiza Shaheen, the candidate blocked by Labour from standing in Chingford and Woodford Green, has announced she will stand as an independent. YouGov has published a poll suggesting Reform UK is just two points behind the Conservatives. Here is Steven Morris’s analysis of Vaughan Gething’s position now as Welsh first minister. Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, has also said Vaughan Gething should now resign, WalesOnline reports. 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. This is from Will Hayward, Welsh affairs editor at Wales Online, on the no confidence vote. I can count a dozen times in the past 5 years I’ve been in press conferences/ interviews with Vaughan Gething and he has lambasted the UK Tories for failing to “respect” Wales and Welsh democracy. IMO, if he loses a no confidence vote within the Welsh Parliament and blithely dismisses it as a “gimmick”, it will lay bare the hollowness of his previous statements. It will suggest that Welsh democracy is not something to be respected and nurtured, and is rather a vehicle for personal political advancement. Gething must "do the honourable thing" and resign, says Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, says Vaughan Gething should resign having lost the no confidence vote. Labour dismisses no confidence vote in Gething as Tory "stunt" Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservative leader, says the vote in the senedd reflects badly not just on Vaughan Gething, but on Keir Starmer too. Senedd Members have backed the Welsh Conservatives’ motion of no confidence in Vaughan Gething. Both Gething AND the Labour Party took cash from the donor who caused this stink. This isn’t just about Vaughan Gething. There are serious questions for @Keir_Starmer too. But Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, says the vote is just a stunt. Today’s Senedd motion is a political stunt by the Conservatives, supported by Plaid Cymru. More Tory chaos. Labour remains entirely focused on the issues that matter to working people across Wales and Britain, and delivering a UK Labour government. Gething loses no confidence motion in senedd, by 29 votes to 27 The Welsh first minister Vaughan Gething has lost the no confidence vote in the senedd. There were 29 MSs voting for the Tory motion, and 27 voting against. Former Tory minister Nadine Dorries says it was "cowardly" of Holden to impose himself as safe seat candidate Nadine Dorries, the former Tory culture secretary (and a Boris Johnson ally very critical of Rishi Sunak and his team), has said that it is “dishonourable” for Richard Holden, the party chair, to impose himself as the only candidate for a safe Tory seat. (See 3.26pm.) (Or a seat the Tories might have a reasonable chance of winning, which is as safe as any Conservative seat is in this election, if the polling is at all reliable.) .@RicHolden knows in his heart that leaving it to the very last moment to impose himself on a safe seat by giving the association only 1 choice (him) is a very wrong thing to do. It’s dishonourable, cowardly and brings the candidates dept into disrepute. He’s better than that. Frankly, I’m amazed that as chairman he’s avoiding scrutiny in this way. Michael Crick, the broadcaster and writer who has been doing a brilliant job monitor constituency selection decisions on X, says other Tories are unhappy about Holden’s move too. Another would-be Tory candidate says: “It’s very unfair what Richard has done as there are strong candidates including myself who were on standby still waiting for a seat yet we have been forced to take a no hoper seat while he forces himself into a strong seat unopposed..” 1/2 2/2... “...not democratic at all or standing by our conservative values of fairness.” One more on candidates’ list says: “If Richard Holden doesn’t think he has the ability to win in a fair selection against other candidates then that should tell us everything we need to know about his ability to run the GE campaign for the Tories. He’s not up to scratch.’ At the last election the Conservatives had a majority of 20,412 in Basildon and Billericay, where Holden is now the candidate. Boundary changes increase the notional majority there by about 300 votes. According to the latest YouGov MRP poll, the Tories are still on course to beat Labour there, but only by 36% to 34%. Here are more pictures of Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak and other leaders at the D-Day commemorations. The debate in the senedd is now over. The vote will take place at the end of today’s business, which means at the end of a debate about HS2 starting now scheduled to last for up to an hour. Gething said, if Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Tory leader, was really concerned about donations, he would have queried why his party was taking money from someone who made racist comments about a black MP, or from someone who served as a minister in a dictatorship. And he said if Davies was really interested in how government was conducted, he would have raised questions about Partygate. Addressing Plaid Cymru, he said they should recognise the “hypocrisy” of the Tories. And he said they should not line up with a party opposed to the interests of Wales. He ended by saying he would “continue to put Wales first” as he lead and served his country. Gething says he has asked his party to carry out a review into how donations are handled. And he has asked the senedd’s standards committee to look at how the rules operate. But he says it is wrong to change the rules retrospectively. He says he is grateful for the support he has had. Many people of colour know what it is like to be vilified, he says. I also want to recognise that, like me, so many people of colour have been traduced and vilified merely for raising concerns about how some of these debates have been handled. Our lived experience should matter and be respected. We still have a very long way to go. He says Labour has always offered pairs to other parties when MSs are too ill to vote. And he says the refusal of the Tories to offer pairs today, when two Labour MSs are ill, reflects badly on them. Gething tells MSs he has made mistakes, but has never made a decision as minister for personal or financial gain In the senedd Vaughan Gething is speaking now. He says he regrets the fact the Tories have brought this motion forward. That is not because he is infallible, he says. He is human, and he has made mistakes and will continue to do so, he says. Instead, he says, he regrets the motion because it criticises his integrity. He goes on: I have dedicated my adult life to public service and to Wales. I have never, ever made a decision, in more than a decade as a minister, for personal or financial gain. In the debate in the senedd Hefin David, a loyal Vaughan Gething ally, suggested race was a factor behind the drive to oust the first minister. David said: I have the right to ask if his ethnicity has an influence on the motives of some of those outside this chamber who seek to break him on the wheel. We cannot ignore that question and we cannot dismiss the lived experience of those BME people who feel it to be the place. He said it was possible a no confidence vote in Gething could lead to a Senedd election needing to be called. Faiza Shaheen says she will run as independent in Chingford and Woodford Green after being blocked by Labour Faiza Shaheen, who was blocked by Labour for standing as its candidate against Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford and Woodford Green, has announced that she is running as an independent. She says she wants to show that there is a “progressive alternative” to both main parties. Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies says Gething"s "judgment, transparency and honesty" open to question Opening the no confidence debate in the Senedd into Vaughan Gething (see 4.03pm), Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Tories in Wales, said it was about “judgement, transparency and honesty.” At the heart of the debate is a donation Gething took from a company whose owner has been convicted of environmental offences. Davies said: Most reasonable people would question what was being secured by that £200,000 donation to the leadership campaign. It’s about judgment, transparency and honesty, it’s not general electioneering, it’s not a vote of confidence in the government or Labour party, it’s about what the first minister has undertaken and the calls he has made. The leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said it was a very grave and solemn day. He said in 25 years of devolution the senedd had faced few financial scandals. But he said Gething had shown a lack of judgement and contrition and a “bunker mentality”. He said: “We must be different from Westminster, not only in words, but deeds too.” Vikki Howells, the chair of the Labour group in the Senedd, said the motion today was a “cynical gimmick” by the Tories to take attention off the general election and subvert democracy. Labour member Joyce Watson expressed anger that the debate had taken place on the anniversary of the D-Day landings, preventing Gething representing Wales in Portsmouth. She told Gething’s opponents: “You could have picked any other day. You chose this day. I will never forgive you. You want to hang your head in shame.” Gething appeared to be in tears as Howells spoke in his support. He was comforted by the chief whip, Jane Hutt.