Vaughan Gething’s Welsh leadership attempt backed by firm which received £400k taxpayer-funded loan

Vaughan Gething’s run to be First Minister of Wales was backed by a firm which received a £400,000 taxpayer-funded loan from a bank he was responsible for overseeing.

He is facing calls for an independent inquiry into his decision to accept a £200,000 campaign gift from Dauson Environmental Group.

Mr Gething, who has been described as “Starmer’s man in Wales”, was chosen to replace Mark Drakeford as the Leader of Welsh Labour last month.

He was confirmed as First Minister after a vote in the Welsh Parliament last month.

Electoral Commission records show that his campaign received two donations of £100,000 each from Dauson Environmental in December and January.

The gifts were made less than a year after a company within the Dauson group was handed a £400,000 loan by a Welsh Government’s development bank.

At the time Mr Gething was the economy minister, running the department responsible for overseeing the operations of the bank.

The Development Bank of Wales (DBW) lent the money to Neal Soil Suppliers Ltd and said it was used to fund the purchase of a new solar farm.

Both the bank and Welsh Government insisted Mr Gething was not involved in the decision. Dauson said none of the cash went on the donation to his campaign.

But critics said the episode raised serious questions around conflict of interest and called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances.

David TC Davies, the Welsh Secretary, questioned why Dauson Environmental needed a taxpayer-funded loan when it had £200,000 for political donations.

He said that Mr Gething must publicly answer questions including when he first learned about the loan and whether he knew about it before accepting the donation.

“Does the First Minister still think it was acceptable to take hundreds of thousands of pounds in a donation from a company that was receiving hundreds of thousands more from the taxpayers of Wales?” he told The Telegraph.

“In the interest of transparency I believe we urgently need answers to these questions.”

Calls for ‘independent investigation’

Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said there must be an “independent investigation” into a possible breach of the ministerial code.

In a letter to Mr Gething he said that his decision to accept the money “gives rise to a serious conflict of interest” which must be fully investigated.

He added that “the scandal is having a corrosive effect on government workings”.

The First Minister is also under pressure from within Labour after Jeremy Miles, his successor as Welsh economy minister, said he “would not have accepted” the donations.

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “Welsh ministers do not take decisions on individual investments provided by the DBW.”

Loan on track to be repaid ‘over five years’

Mr Gething’s campaign has previously said that the donations from Dauson Environmental were declared in line with the rules.

The Development Bank of Wales said the £400,000 loan “is on track to repay over five years” and that “lending and investment decisions taken by the Development Bank are wholly independent of the Welsh Government”.

A spokesman for Dauson Environmental told the BBC: “As a growing Welsh business, Dauson Environmental Group is committed to investing in the operation and development of all our sites, as well as in the Welsh supply chain.

“This includes working with the Development Bank of Wales to support this economic growth.

“We can reassure you that none of the loan received from the Development Bank of Wales was used to contribute to the donations made by Dauson Environmental Group.”