Vaughan Gething elected as the first black leader of the British government

LONDON (AP) — Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labor Party leadership contest on Saturday and is ready to turn into the first black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government.

Gething, the son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, shall be the first black leader of government in Britain – and, in keeping with him, in any European country.

“Today we turn a page in the book of our nation’s history. The history we write together,” Gething said in his victory speech. “Not only because I actually have the honor of becoming the first black leader of any European country, but in addition because the generational dial has shifted.

“I want us to use this moment as a starting point to march more confidently into the future,” he added.

Gething, currently Wales’ economy minister, narrowly defeated Education Minister Jeremy Miles in the race to exchange first minister Mark Drakeford. Drakeford, 69, announced late last 12 months that he would step down once a successor was chosen.

Gething, 50, won 51.7% of the votes solid by members of the party and its affiliated trade unions, and Miles 48.3%.

Once approved on Wednesday by the Welsh Senedd Parliament, where Labor is the largest party, Gething will turn into the fifth first minister since Wales’ national legislature was established in 1999.

When Gething takes office, three of Britain’s 4 governments can have non-white leaders. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is of Indian heritage, while Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf was born in the UK to Pakistani parents.

Northern Ireland is co-led by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, meaning for the first time in the UK there are not any white men leading the government

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Wales, with a population of around 3 million, is one of the 4 parts of Great Britain, together with England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The British government in London is liable for defence, foreign affairs and other UK-wide issues, while the administrations in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast control areas such as education and health.

Gething was Wales’ health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, and as economy minister he needed to cope with the fallout from Tata Steel’s plan to shut each blast furnaces at its Port Talbot factory, eliminating 2,800 jobs at one of Wales’ largest employers.

He will take over a government that is usually at odds with Sunak’s conservative administration in London. There has also been a wave of farmer protests in Wales over environmental rules, similar to people who have swept through France and other European countries.

Gething was the favorite in the contest, although his campaign was rocked by revelations that he had accepted donations value £200,000 ($255,000) from a recycling company found guilty of environmental crimes and breaches of health and safety regulations.

Gething concluded that the donations were accurately declared in accordance with electoral rules.

Other party leaders congratulated Gething while expressing a dose of skepticism.

“I daresay it will be business as usual because he is cut from the same cloth as Mark Drakeford,” said Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies.