Vaughan Gething's terrible answer when asked about the £200k donation to his campaign

At this point we know the following things to be true regarding First Minster Vaughan Gething:

• He took a £200K donation from a criminal to fund his leadership campaign.

• That donation had been six times the spending limit for the contest.

• He'd lobbied regulators on behalf of the same company that had illegally dumped waste on a conservation site.

• He was the minister responsible for a state owned bank that gave the company a £400k loan, less than a year before the same company donated £200k to his campaign.

• On the same day he accepted the donation, the company also put in a application for a solar farm that required the approval of the Government he was campaigning to form.

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Given that he is now the most powerful man in Wales, and all of the above points are known to be true, it is not unreasonable to believe that he has some questions to answer regarding his decision to take the donation. Given that we live in a liberal democracy, it is also not unreasonable to assume that he will be trying to provide meaningful answers to those questions.

However on that final assumption you would be wrong. From the moment in late January that the donation first came to light the only response that Vaughan Gething and his team have given is "no rules were broken". But over the last few days the story has moved forward further after documents at Companies House showed that the same company that made the donation to Mr Gething had, 12 months before, received a loan of £400,000 from the Development Bank of Wales.

At the time this loan was made Mr Gething was a the economy minister. Within his portfolio was the Development Bank of Wales.

He was asked about this by ITV's Rob Osbourne, who said: "Would it be wise for you, for the Welsh Government and for the people of Wales just to call an independent, external investigation into this matter?"

In response Mr Gething said: "No rules have been broken in a way that donations are received are declared. I have complied with all my obligations. The danger always is people are prepared to make enough noise and notice it, and it takes away from what really matters."

This was echoed in First Minister's Questions in the Senedd where Mr Gething was quizzed by both the leader of Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives over the donations with repeated calls for an independent investigation into his decision. The response time and again from the First Minister was simply to repeat "no rules were broken".

This stock answer really misses the point. The story of Mr Gething's donation has cut through with much of the Welsh public in a way that few political stories do. The reason the public care isn't because they feel "rules have been broken". It is because the issue raises questions of ethics, morality and the judgement of the man leading Wales. It begs questions of the wider political system that Welsh politics operates. If we have a system when taking whopping donations for criminals is not against the rules, is it the rules themselves which are the problem?

It seems likely that Vaughan Gething will weather this storm. Not because of clever PR on the side of his team but rather because there is no realistic avenue for him to be challenged from. No Welsh Labour MS is going to make any moves against him this close to a general election. Even if the UK wasn't going to the polls this year it is unlikely any of them would be willing to break cover to raise this issue.

But this doesn't mean donations gate isn't going to be damaging to Mr Gething in a whole host of ways. The first is the damage it has caused to his standing among his own MSs. Most of the Senedd group supported his rival and it is how he has blithely dismissed criticism of the donations, as much as the donations themselves that has left many of the people he needs behind him sharpening their long knives.

There are lessons in this whole affair if Mr Gething is willing to learn them. The inability to even address perfectly legitimate criticism could prove to be his undoing. Issues come up all the time in politics. Skillful leaders are able to nip these issues in the bud by at least being seen front up, but if the First Minister can't do that, a tumultuous term in office is inevitable.

With Senedd expansion it seems highly likely that Labour will need build cross party alliances after the 2026 election. To do that will require the ability to comprise and keep opponents, at least tacitly, on side. So far Mr Gething has shown an incredible ability to rub up the wrong way even people inclined to support him.

Perhaps the biggest lesson to have been learned is on behalf of the Welsh public. Donations Gate has laid bare the close connections that exist between politicians and those with money. It has also showed how weak our current system is when it comes to transparency. Faith in Welsh democracy could well be the biggest casualty of Mr Gething choosing to take the £200,000.