The fly-tipping scandal that brought down Labour’s Welsh leader

They say a picture tells a thousand stories. If so, one must wonder about the sorry image of the First Minister of Wales shaken and sobbing in the Senedd this week.

On Wednesday, Labour’s new incumbent Vaughan Gething, 50, lost a no-confidence motion just 78 days into the job after his contested appointment in March. It caused him to weep in front of colleagues, and offer – some would say – extremely rare words of contrition.

The reason? In February, during his leadership campaign, it emerged Gething had received two £100,000 donations from a large environmental company convicted of polluting.

Dauson Environmental Group, whose director is Welsh businessman David John Neal, 63, has been convicted of environmental crimes on several occasions, with his companies fined and ordered to pay costs totalling more than £400,000.

But in the new year, Neal boosted Gething’s campaign coffers by a total of £200,000. Despite repeated calls to return the money by Labour colleagues and opposing politicians, Gething has persistently refused. The £200,000 donation equates to roughly 80 per cent of the £254,000 that Gething spent in total. And it counts as one of the biggest single donations in Welsh political history. To put it in context, his opponent Jeremy Miles was only able to raise £58,800 from all donors during the same time frame.

It is – according to Conservative rivals who subsequently triggered the no-confidence vote – a sorry tale of pollution, corruption and sleaze. Here – in pictures – we tell the story.

Gwent Levels

Trouble began on the picturesque Gwent Levels, between Newport and Cardiff, in 2013. The marshlands area is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), full of rare species such as otters, grass snakes and marsh harriers. It also supports a variety of wetland birds, such as curlews and oystercatchers.

The rubbish

In 2013, however, two companies owned by millionaire David John Neal and based in the area were found to have breached environmental law. One, Atlantic Recycling, illegally stored 19,000 tonnes of rubbish on a field close to Neal’s farm in Wentloog. In a further breach of regulations, at his soil segregation company, Neal Soil Suppliers, he was found to have spread food effluent and dairy waste across a field, creating a stink for those living nearby.

Convicted criminal

Following a year-long investigation by Natural Resource Wales (NRW), in 2013, Neal appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, where he pleaded guilty personally to breaches of environmental rules and also pleaded guilty on behalf of his two companies to depositing waste likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

He was given a three-month suspended jail term and fined £10,000, while his two firms were fined £50,000 each, and ordered to pay £51,000 each in costs. The court heard “substantial and serious pollution” leaked toxic liquid into the water.

Unrepentant

In 2017, Neal was back in court, this time pleading guilty to failing to remove the waste from his site, as he had been ordered to do in 2013. He was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with his two companies receiving fines and costs totalling £230,000. At the time, Jon Goldsworthy, of NRW, said: “Despite our best efforts to work with David John Neal and the companies he operates, he continues to show a lack of respect for the rules we enforce and for the health of the environment.”

Atlantic Recycling were back in court in January 2023, and again pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court for failing to operate in accordance with its environmental permit. The offence allegedly dates from July 2019. The sentence will be decided in December this year.

Donations

In the autumn of 2018, Gething received £38,000 from two of Neal’s companies – Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers – when he ran to become Welsh Labour leader. A few months earlier – in spring 2018, Gething wrote to NRW supporting his friend’s efforts to build a lucrative water treatment and biomass boiler on one of his sites. He said: “I am not sure how further delay can be justified.”

But as late as January this year, according to reports in the BBC, Atlantic Recycling again pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court for failing to operate in accordance with its permit. The offence allegedly dates from July 2019. The company is currently waiting to be sentenced. In February 2024, it was reported that Neal had given Gething’s leadership campaign a donation of some £200,000. He received £100,000 on 18 December 2023, and £100,000 on 11 January 2024 from Neal’s parent company Dauson Environmental Group Ltd. In the same month as the story broke, Atlantic Recycling was fined £300,000 in February and ordered to pay £29,000 costs for breaching health and safety after a worker, Anthony Bilton, was tragically killed in a collision with a large digger. Judge Neal Thomas told Merthyr Tydfil magistrates that there was “no excuse” for its failings.

Conflict of interest?

Interestingly, Neal submitted a planning application to the Welsh government in January of this year – the same time he gave the second of the £100,000 donations to Gething. His proposal was to build a 67-acre “solar park” covering some of the last remaining green fields in this sensitive part of the Gwent Levels. An environmental impact assessment submitted as part of the application showed the development would impact the SSSI. But because the businessman claimed the project was “a development of national significance”, the outcome would be determined not by local planning officers but by ministers from Gething’s own government. The application is still being considered.

It has also emerged that, in 2021, after leaving his health brief, Gething was put in charge of improving Wales’s economy post Covid. The role saw him overseeing the Welsh Development Bank, created to lend taxpayer money to businesses to help jumpstart the economy. Last February, the bank decided to lend Neal Soil Suppliers £400,000 in order to fund the purchase of a solar farm. Gething denies any involvement.

More stink

Meanwhile, another of Neal’s firms, Resources Management Ltd, which runs the Withyhedge landfill site near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, has also faced accusations of pollution.

For years, locals have been complaining of its foul odours which can be smelt as far away as five miles, likening the site to a “stink bomb on steroids”. Water quality campaigners have also voiced concerns that liquid discharge from the top could have a detrimental impact on local streams and rivers. Others complain that air quality monitoring is done not by impartial monitors, but in fact by another of Neal’s firms.

Backlash

Since news of the donations broke, Gething has been plagued by calls by colleagues and opposing party members to return the money or step down. Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The situation is unsustainable and unbecoming. Gething must do the right thing – return the money and distance himself from this company.” Meanwhile, on May 1, in heated exchanges in the Senedd, former transport minister, Lee Waters, said he was “deeply uncomfortable” with the donation.

Starmer’s reaction

In a recent visit to Wales, Starmer has defended Gething and said he had broken no rules over the donations. He says he “absolutely” has confidence in him. This came despite the fact that, last month, it also emerged Gething had told ministers in a group chat in August 2020 that he was deleting WhatsApp messages relating to the government’s handling of Covid. At the time, he was health minister; he said he was aware they could be scrutinised in the future so was getting rid of them. This later led to the sacking of Hannah Blythyn, the minister he claimed was responsible for the leak that exposed him. A spokesman for the Covid Inquiry confirmed it had been made aware of the leaked message and was considering whether Gething needed to provide further information. Gething has denied that the message contradicted the evidence he had given to the inquiry in March.

Tears in Senedd

Gething has repeatedly stuck to the line that the donations had been made in line with party protocols and has refused calls to return the money. But his lack of contrition or accountability led to Wednesday’s no-confidence vote, which he lost by two votes. He later said he has “made and will continue to make mistakes”.

“It does hurt deeply when my intentions are questioned,” Gething added. “I will not shy away from scrutiny and challenge.”

After the vote, Wales’s shadow first minister, Conservative Andrew RT Davies, told The Telegraph: “Both Vaughan Gething and the Labour Party took cash from the donor who caused this stink. Senedd Members rightly backed the Welsh Conservatives’ vote of no confidence in Mr Gething. But there are serious questions for Keir Starmer too.”

The vote is not binding and Gething has insisted he will stay in post, being backed by Sir Keir Starmer, but others are calling on him to resign. Meanwhile, Neal has told Wales Online he feels like a stick being used to beat Gething with. He added: “I never asked anything or expected anything of Vaughan.” No doubt, this is not the end of the stink, or the story.

David John Neal and the Senedd have been approached for comment