New Welsh Labour leader Vaughan Gething has declared another £51,000 in donations made to his campaign.

Last Saturday Mr Gething beat rival Jeremy Miles in the contest to become the next Welsh Labour leader. His campaign proved controversial after he received a huge £200,000 donation from a man whose companies have been convicted of environmental offences. On the same day that he received the donation, one of the donor's companies submitted an application to build a large solar farm in Cardiff that would require Welsh Government approval.

The latest declarations with the Electoral Commission shows that during the Welsh Labour leadership campaign, Cardiff South and Penarth MS Mr Gething accepted a further three cash donations.

  • One for £25,000 was from Veezu Holding Ltd on February 15
  • Another for £21,600 from Jeane Marie Davies on January 31
  • He accepted £5,000 from Christopher Loyn in January 22.

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Veezu Holdings is a taxi company owned by Welsh entrepreneur Nathan Bowles. Another company Mr Bowles has been involved in, Smart Solutions, previously made a contribution of “staff costs” worth £20,000 to Mr Gething's leadership campaign in 2018. Two years later in 2020, Smart Solutions Recruitment was ‘named and shamed’ by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for failing to pay the minimum wage.

Ms Davies is married to city grandee Mervyn Davies (Baron Davies of Abersoch) who has worked for a number of major banks and served in Gordon Brown's cabinet as a minister for trade, investment and business. Christopher Loyn appears to be an architect based in Penarth.

These donations means that Mr Gething has now received over a quarter of a million pounds in donations.

By contrast Mr Miles miles received £58,500 in donations. You can see a full list of Mr Miles' donations here:

Mr Gething is currently in in the process of of building his cabinet after winning the leadership race. To do this he needs to placate many Labour Senedd members who supported his rival and/or were unhappy with his donations. You can read an analysis of this here.