A company that bankrolled Vaughan Gething’s successful bid to become Wales’ first minister was linked to a criminal investigation at the time, the BBC can reveal. Mr Gething’s leadership campaign accepted £200,000 from a firm controlled by millionaire businessman David Neal.
A criminal investigation into suspected environmental offences by one of Mr Neal’s firms, Resources. Management Limited (RML), is being carried out by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). A spokesman for Welsh Labour said the issues had “previously been addressed by Vaughan Gething and are a matter of public record.
BBC Wales Investigates can also reveal that a senior Welsh Labour figure offered to lend Mr Gething money so he could pay back the donation in full, but he declined to take up the offer. Mr Gething, who narrowly won the Welsh Labour leader contest earlier this year, previously said he had done nothing wrong and has not broken the ministerial code. The continuing row in Wales is an unwelcome distraction to Sir Keir Starmer during the general election campaign – although the Labour leader has publicly backed Mr Gething.
RML runs the Withyhedge landfill site near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, which people have complained since October 2023 is a “stink bomb on steroids”. RML said it would “continue to fully cooperate with any pending investigations by Natural Resources Wales.
But it is not the first time a waste management company controlled by Mr Neal has been investigated.
He was twice convicted for environmental crimes relating to two companies in 2013 and 2017, and one of those also pleaded guilty in March this year to another offence.
One woman said she moved back to her childhood home in the nearby village of Crundale with her partner and two young children for a “better quality of life”, but it has been marred by the Withyhedge site. I went out of the house to go to work and was hit with a horrible stench of rotten eggs, I held my breath until I got to the car. It was horrible,” Jenny Clubbe told Wales Investigates.
Source: BBC
In other news – John Swinney urges voters to put Scotland’s interests first
John Swinney has urged people to “vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests first” as he formally launched the party’s general election campaign.
Mr Swinney told activists and candidates at a rally in Glasgow that Westminster decision-making had meant “austerity, Brexit and a cost of living crisis being imposed on Scotland”. Scotland’s first minister stressed his belief in independence as a way to ensure decisions about Scotland are made in Scotland. Read more
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
