Vaughan Gething (born 15 March 1974) is a
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
Labour and Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party.
Candidat ...
politician serving as
Minister for the Economy since 2021. He previously served as the
Minister for Health and Social Services
The Minister for Health and Social Services () is a cabinet position in the Welsh Government, currently held by Eluned Morgan MS.
The minister is responsible for the running of the National Health Service in Wales, all aspects of public healt ...
from
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'Γ©tat attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
to 2021. He has been the
Member of the Senedd
A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; cy, Aelodau o'r Senedd; , plural:) (AS)., group=la is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd ...
(MS) for
Cardiff South and Penarth since
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
.
Early life
Gething was born in
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
in 1974, where his father, a
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
vet from
Ogmore-by-Sea
Ogmore-by-Sea ( Welsh: ''Aberogwr'', meaning "Mouth of the River Ogmore") is a seaside village in St Brides Major community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies on the western limit of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast of south Wales. The pop ...
in
South Glamorgan
, Government= South Glamorgan County Council
, Status= Non-metropolitan county (1974β1996) Preserved county (1996β)
, Start= 1974
, End= 1996
, Arms=
, HQ= ...
, met his mother who is a Black 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
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , D ...
, where Gething was brought up.
He studied at
Beaminster Comprehensive and Sixth Form in Dorset, followed by
Aberystwyth University
, mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all
, established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'')
, former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth
, type = Public
, endowment = ...
where he read Law and graduated in 1999,
and then going onto the
University of Cardiff Law School,
University of Wales
The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges β Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff β ...
.
Gething became President of
Aberystwyth University Guild of Students and the first Black president of the
National Union of Students Wales
National Union of Students Wales (NUS Wales; cy, Undeb Cenedlaethol y Myfyrwyr Cymru, ) is the Welsh section of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom. NUS Wales, alongside its constituent students' unions represents students in ...
.
Professional career
Having completed his training as a
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
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
The Wales TUC ( cy, TUC Cymru) is the co-ordinating body of trade unions in Wales. With 48 affiliated unions as of 2021, the Wales TUC represents nearly 400,000 workers.
Activities
The Wales TUC is an integral part of the Trades Union Congress ...
, 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
The 1992 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 April 1992, to elect 651 members to the House of Commons. The election resulted in the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party since 1979 and would be the last time ...
.
He was a
councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
from 2004 to 2008, representing
Butetown electoral ward on
Cardiff Council
Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...
, 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
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
.
Lorraine Barrett
Lorraine Jayne Barrett (born 18 Mar 1950) is a former Welsh Labour & Co-operative Party, Co-operative Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Cardiff South and Penarth (Assembly constituency), Cardiff South and Penarth and an Assembly Commi ...
, 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
The Welsh Conservatives ( cy, Ceidwadwyr Cymreig) is the branch of the United Kingdom Conservative Party that operates in Wales. At Westminster elections, it is the second most popular political party in Wales, having obtained the second-large ...
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
Carwyn Howell Jones (born 21 March 1967) is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the S ...
promoted Gething to the
Welsh Cabinet
, image =
, caption =
, date_established =
, country = Wales
, address =
, leader_title = First Minister ()
, appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...
as
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport.
Gething did not support
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
in either the
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
or
2016 Labour Party leadership election (against challenger
Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
) but stated in a 2017
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales br ...
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
Mark Drakeford (born 19 September 1954) is a Welsh politician serving as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018 and Minist ...
.
Drakeford subsequently reappointed Gething as Health Minister, with the position renamed as
Minister for Health and Social Services
The Minister for Health and Social Services () is a cabinet position in the Welsh Government, currently held by Eluned Morgan MS.
The minister is responsible for the running of the National Health Service in Wales, all aspects of public healt ...
. On 13 May 2021, Gething was promoted to
Minister for the Economy, replacing
Ken Skates
Kenneth Christian Skates MS (born 2 April 1976) is a Welsh Labour politician. Skates has represented the constituency of Clwyd South in the Senedd since the election of 2011. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, and worked as a j ...
.
Zoom incident
On 22 April 2020, Gething was caught swearing about fellow Labour MS
Jenny Rathbone
Jenny Ann Rathbone (born 12 February 1950) is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has been a Member of the Senedd (MS) since 2011.
Career
She was Labour candidate for Cardiff Central at the 2010 General Election coming second to Li ...
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
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
meeting. Rathbone had been asking the Minister questions about the Welsh Government's response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
Following the incident, both the
Welsh Conservative
The Welsh Conservatives ( cy, Ceidwadwyr Cymreig) is the branch of the United Kingdom Conservative Party that operates in Wales. At Westminster elections, it is the second most popular political party in Wales, having obtained the second-large ...
leader,
Paul Davies
Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institute ...
and
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru β the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
leader,
Adam Price
Adam Robert Price (born 23 September 1968) is a Welsh politician serving as the Leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018. , he has sat in the Senedd for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, having previously been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Carmart ...
called on
Mark Drakeford
Mark Drakeford (born 19 September 1954) is a Welsh politician serving as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018 and Minist ...
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 union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s
GMB,
UNISON
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm.
Definition
Unison or per ...
and
Unite
Unite may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Unite'' (A Friend in London album), 2013 album by Danish band A Friend in London
* ''Unite'' (Kool & the Gang album), 1993
* ''Unite'' (The O.C. Supertones album), 2005
Songs ...
.
External links
Official website
Biography β Senedd website
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gething, Vaughan
1974 births
Living people
People from Dorset
Politicians from Cardiff
Labour Co-operative members of the Senedd
Wales AMs 2011β2016
Wales MSs 2016β2021
Wales MSs 2021β2026
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