Drakeford’s successor as new First Minister of Wales to be revealed today
The result of the race to become the next First Minister of Wales will be revealed today.
Jeremy Miles, the current Minister for Education and Welshlanguage,andvaughan Gething, the Minister for the Economy, have been competing to see who will lead Welsh Labour, and the country.
They are bidding to replace Mark Drakeford, who has been First Minister since 2018 and announced his intention to resign late last year.
Whoever succeeds will be the country’s fifth leader since the National Assembly for Wales, now called the Senedd, was established in 1999.
Only Labour members or those who are part of an affiliated organisation, such as a trade union, were able to participate in the vote, meaning about 100,000 people were able to take part.
Mr Gething had the backing of most of the large unions and Lord Kinnock, who led the UK party from 1983 to 1992. Mr Miles saw support from the majority of the Labour Members of the Senedd.
There have been concerns raised around £200,000 of donations to Mr Gething from a company which was found guilty of environmental offences in January.
Mr Drakeford is not expected to stand down immediately, with his final first minister’s questions on March 19.
He said: “At whatever point anybody takes on this job there will always be an in-tray that is full, and it will always be an intray that’s got some challenging issues in it.”
Asked what advice he would give his successor, Mr Drakeford told them to "be bold”.
There will always be an in-tray that is full
Mark Drakeford