27 January 2024 , 19:35
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Vaughan Gething this weekend got the backing of a fourth big trade union in his bid to be the next Welsh Labour leader - a role that would make him the first Black leader of a European country.
Wales' finance minister previously served in the health ministry for seven years - but his first experience of the country was one of rejection and racism.
“Yeah, I know it matters,” Mr Gething says when asked if being the first Black European leader would make him proud.
“I’m standing in the contest because I think I’m the best candidate, I’ve got all the experience and values and vision for the future,” he said.
“But you can’t ignore or brush aside the historic nature of what would happen if I win the contest.
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“For Black boys and girls to see someone in the highest office in Wales that looks like them, that understands lots of what it’s like growing up like them, and also for other people to see you can achieve things in Wales.”
Mr Gething’s father, David, was a white vet from Glamorgan who met his mother Beritha, a chicken farmer, in Zambia while working for the country’s government.
They moved to the UK in 1976, after David was offered a job in Monmouthshire.
But when the owners of the veterinary practice saw him arrive with a Black family, the job offer was withdrawn and the family moved to settle in West Dorset instead.
“They sent my father a cheque to cover his travel expenses,” Vaughan said. “Which he returned.
“I know that’s the 1970s, and it’s shocking to a range of people now. But if you speak to Black people who were around in the 70s and if you speak to Black people about their experience today, some may say they’re shocked and it’s dreadful, but I don’t think all of them will say they’re surprised.”
Vaughan's parents came to the UK in 1976 when he was a child, after his father was offered a job in Monmouthshire“He’d get really Welsh on International day, and his accent would change as we crossed the Severn Bridge,” he said. “We went on holiday to France and he dusted down his 30 year old French to learn the phrase ‘Je ne pas anglais, je suis galois.’ (I'm not English, I'm Welsh.)
“That’s who he was, and it goes into who I am today.”
Before his current job as Economy Minister, Mr Gething spent two years as a deputy minister and five years as Cabinet Minister in the Health department - where he oversaw Wales’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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“The NHS is personal to me,” he said.
After returning to Wales as a student, Mr Gething was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, the same kidney disorder that claimed the life of Rugby superstar Jonah Lomu.
The debilitating condition sapped his energy, leaving him like a “zombie”, unable to read or even write his name.
His mother and father both offered to donate a kidney if they were a match.
He said: “Now I understand that as a parent, I’d happily do that in a heartbeat for my own child.
“But at 19 years old having that conversation with your dad, that was really hard.”
As a student, Vaughan was struck down with the same kidney disease that claimed the life of Rugby superstar Jonah LomuThe NHS was able to treat the illness with a new drug, Cyclosporine, and he fully recovered.
He said: “It made a difference. And it's what allowed me to look ahead to the future.
“If I was in a different country, without an NHS, it’s entirely possible that wouldn’t have happened. So the care, the treatment, not just the drugs, but all of that made a difference to me. I was always grateful for it”
He’s proud of how he led the department through the pandemic.
“There was no VIP lane scandal here,” he said. “We actually had a test and trace system that worked, and was a public service. We didn’t sack [outsourcing giant] Serco in Wales because I didn’t hire them in the first place.
“It shows the power of devolution making a difference.”
After being cured by the NHS, Vaughan went on to serve in the Welsh health department for seven yearsAnother point of pride, he said, was the decision he took to approve the anti-HIV drug PrEP for use in Wales in, before medicines officials had officially recommended it.
He said: “It had been an educated choice to make because I knew the harm that was being caused, I knew this was possible. And the only way to get the evidence was to do it on that basis.”
He added: “Since we did that people who are on PrEP, not a single one of them is contracted HIV who's had the who's had the drug and taken in accordance with a condition.
“That means there are hundreds of people in Wales who would almost certainly have had HIV.”
He has endorsements from the GMB union, the Communication Workers Union and Unite in the bag already, but how does Vaughan get on with Labour’s leadership in Westminster?
“I get on with Keir Starmer well, actually,” he said, reeling off half a dozen members of his Shadow Cabinet he also gets on well with.
“The challenge,” he said, “Is how you do your job, and how you’re not afraid to have a conversation where you disagree, but to be persuasive and reach areas of agreement.
“You can see it today in Port Talbot, the pandemic and beyond, it really matters who is in the UK government. And it really matters that we have a UK Labour government with a different view of the future.”
He added: “I don’t take an election victory for granted, and none of us should. I think the next Labour Government is well worth fighting for. It matters here in Wales, but I think right across the UK as well.”