The First Minister of Wales has insisted that leaked messages to the media came from former social partnership minister Hannah Blythyn’s phone but said he has “never tried to claim” she was the direct source.
In a heated exchange at the Senedd’s Scrutiny Committee Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Labour government leader, defended his decision to sack the former minister, insisting that evidence showed messages given to Nation.Cymru came from her phone.
However, he insisted he has never tried to claim Ms Blythyn directly contacted the media herself.
Ms Blythyn was removed from the Welsh Government in May, after messages from the Covid pandemic were leaked to the website Nation.Cymru.
The leaked messages showed Mr Gething claiming he would delete all correspondence from an iMessage group of Welsh ministers.
Delyn MS Ms Blythyn said this week in the Senedd that she could “look all my colleagues who sit on these benches in the eye” and say she had not leaked to the media.
And on Thursday, Nation.Cymru came out and insisted Ms Blythyn was not the source of the leak which triggered her sacking.
Speaking at the Scrutiny Committee meeting held at the Parc Y Scarlets rugby stadium in Llanelli on Friday, the First Minister said: “When it comes to the evidence, there’s no inconsistency in what I said.
“I never tried to claim that Hannah Blythyn directly contacted Nation Cymru.
“I’m very clear the evidence I had confirmed that a photograph of her phone was provided to Nation Cymru.
“Ministers are responsible for their own data.”
Mr Gething said the photograph being given to a journalist in May “directly affects trust within the government”.
He added that if it had only impacted himself, he would have tried to “tough it out and not do anything” but described it as a “real issue between ministers”.
The exchange between Mr Gething and the committee grew heated, with the First Minister shouting at Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd to “let me finish” when he was questioned about whether he asked Ms Blythyn if authorities could check her devices to see if messages had been shared.
Mr Gething argued the question was “getting into the weeds” and said it was clear that the photograph “could only have come from one member”.
The First Minister has come under sustained attack in recent months for his decision to sack Ms Blythyn, and over a series of rows concerning donations he took while running to be Welsh Labour leader.
This led to the collapse of a co-operation agreement between his party and Plaid Cymru and he subsequently lost a non-binding vote of no confidence in the Senedd.
The First Minister’s decision to sack Ms Blythyn followed reporting by Nation.Cymru which featured a message posted to a ministerial group chat in August 2020 by Mr Gething, saying that he was “deleting the messages in this group”.
He said the leaked message was from a section of an iMessage group chat with other Labour ministers and related to internal discussions within the Senedd Labour group.
Mr Gething previously told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lost WhatsApp messages were not deleted by him, but by the Welsh Parliament’s IT team during a security rebuild.
He denied the leaked message contradicted the evidence he had given to the inquiry, adding that it did not relate to pandemic decision-making but “comments that colleagues make to and about each other”.
The First Minister faces a fresh crunch vote next week, as the Welsh Conservatives have tabled a motion in the hopes of compelling him to publish the evidence he used to sack Ms Blythyn.
