‘Vaughan Gething faces another showdown this week…but questions remain,’ writes Andrew RT Davies

He had accepted £200,000 from a company owned by a man twice convicted of environmental offences.

He said in an iMessage chat that he was deleting Covid-era messages to avoid messages, in his own words, being “captured in an FOI”.

He had sacked a Minister, Hannah Blythyn, for leaking one of his messages, even though she had denied leaking them.

Two key Labour Members were not present for the vote (both had left Welsh Government since Gething took the top job) and so he lost by two votes. The vote was non-binding and he decided he could cling on.

But these question marks still hang over his head, and the vote next week relates specifically to the Ministerial sacking.

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I should say that it’s up to Vaughan Gething, or the leader of any Government, to decide who serves in their top team.

If Gething had sacked Hannah Blythyn simply because he wanted to put someone else in that job, then there would be no real issue.

The reason this story is causing Gething so much grief is that when he sacked Hannah Blythyn, he said it was because of leaks to the media. Hannah Blythyn denied leaking then, and she denies it now.

Indeed, just this week in the Senedd she made a personal statement in which she continued to deny leaking to the media.

So the problem is that we have two conflicting stories running parallel here. The First Minister has been unwilling so far to publish the evidence upon which he relied to dismiss Hannah Blythyn, and seems to expect us to take his word for it that the evidence was there.

Unfortunately, because of his behaviour over recent months, taking his word for it isn’t an option.

So next week, on Wednesday afternoon, the Welsh Conservatives will hold a debate on the floor of the Senedd, and if it is passed, it may legally compel the First Minister to publish any evidence he has, and we can get to the bottom of this episode once and for all.

When Gething lost his vote of confidence, two Labour Members were not present to vote for him. One of them was Hannah Blythyn. This time, Hannah Blythyn may vote, as she has returned to the Senedd.

The other Labour Member who wasn’t present last time, Lee Waters, is also back in the Senedd, and it’s great to see both of them back in their places.

On Wednesday, we will see if there was any truth in the assertion made by Gething’s loyalist that the pair would have supported Gething if they had been voting on the day he lost the vote of confidence.