Vaughan Gething Hints Wales Wants Cash Boost Under Labour Government

First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething has said that the biggest challenge he expects to face as the Labour leader of the devolved government will be how to increase the scale of budgets to boost public services.

Gething is in his first few weeks of leading the Welsh government, having won the leadership election to replace Mark Drakeford last month. As the Senedd returns from Easter recess on Monday, Gething will host his first cabinet meeting and prepare for his inaugural First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday. 

The first black leader of any European country, Gething told PoliticsHome he was looking forward to both the opportunity and the challenge – with the intention of setting out to his cabinet and to the UK Labour leadership why there will likely be many “bumps in the road”.

“The biggest challenge we really have is the scale of our budget, and the way that there is no prospect of that improving if we have more of the same,” he told PoliticsHome, hinting that he hopes that under a Labour UK government, Wales could see its share of the pot increase.

“What really matters for us is how we set a budget, the scale of a budget… you've got to have partners in the UK Government, or [you get] the continuation of the aggressive competition we've had up to now.”

Gething said that “people are pretty fed up” with the cost of living and believed and hoped if Keir Starmer were to get to Downing Street at the next election, Labour would need to immediately increase investment in the economy and public services across the whole of the UK. 

"I think lots of voters still like the sound of what we want to do, and want to understand that it is a properly costed manifesto,” he said.

“I understand the need for fiscal discipline, but I remember