PROFILE - Vaughan Gething: Europe’s 1st Black head of government

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Vaughan Gething will formally become Wales' next first minister on Wednesday, making the 50-year-old politician Europe's first ever Black head of government.

"The question for us today, is beth nesa? What’s next?" Gething said during his address last week just after narrowly winning the Welsh Labour leadership election with 51.7% of the vote, beating his rival Jeremy Miles.

He has received many congratulations messages following his win and made headlines globally as he will not only be the first Black person to hold the role in Wales but also the first Black leader of any European country.

"Today, we turn a page in the book of our nation's history, a history we write together," said the Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician in his address on Saturday.

Along with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent, and Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf, who was born to a Pakistani family in the UK, Gething is the third leader who is the son of an immigrant in the country.

- Born in Zambia to Welsh father

Gething was born in the capital of Zambia, Lusaka, in 1974 to a Welsh father and a Zambian mother. He moved to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales when he was only two.

His father, a veterinarian from Ogmore-by-Sea, a seaside village near the south Wales town of Bridgend, had moved there to work and had met his mother, a chicken farmer.

Later, his family, which also included three brothers and a sister, moved to Dorset in southwest England, where he was brought up.

Gething was educated at Aberystwyth and Cardiff universities. He was a solicitor and former partner at the Thompsons Solicitors and a member of the GMB, UNISON and Unite unions.

He joined the Labour Party when he was only 17 to campaign in the 1992 UK general elections and contested Mid and West Wales in 1999 elections but was not elected.

In 2008, at the age of 34, he became the youngest president of the Wales Trades Union Congress (TUC), also becoming the first mixed race person to serve in the role.

Gething who has previously served as a county councilor, school governor and community service volunteer, was the chair of Right to Vote, a cross-party project to encourage greater participation from Black minority ethnic communities in Welsh public life, between 2001 and 2003.

He served as deputy minister for tackling poverty from June 2013 to September 2014 and then deputy minister for health until May 2016.

For five years until 2021, Gething was cabinet secretary, minister for health and social services, followed by minister for the economy.

- Taking the top post

On Dec. 13, 2023, then-First Minister Mark Drakeford announced his resignation as leader of Welsh Labour, triggering an election to fill the vacancy.

The procedure requires candidates for Welsh Labour leader to be members of the Senedd (MSs), or Welsh Parliament, and to meet one of the following three criteria: receive nominations from 20% of Labour MSs, receive nominations from 10% of MSs and 20% of Constituency Labour Parties, or receive nominations from 10% of MSs and three nominations from Welsh Labour affiliated organizations, including two from affiliated trade unions.

In the same month, he became one of two candidates in the Welsh Labour leadership election to replace Drakeford as party leader and Wales' first minister.

On Jan. 16, Gething and the other candidate, Jeremy Miles, took part in a hustings event to get the nomination from the trade union Unite, and he got the nomination.

Following the elections, which were held on a one-member-one-vote basis with all Welsh Labour members that joined the party before Dec. 12 -- the day before Drakeford resigned -- eligible to vote on March 16, it was announced that Gething had won the election with 51.7% of the vote, paving the way for him to become the first Black first minister of Wales as well as the first Black leader of any European country.

According to official data, 57.8% of party members and 9.4% of affiliates voted in the election, although Welsh Labour does not share how many members it has.

He also has been a member of the Senedd (MS) for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2011.

Gething, whose full name is Humphrey Vaughan ap David Gething, is married to Michelle, with a son living in Penarth, where he has lived since 2011.