Education chief reveals further details about meeting which led to Gething ‘deleted messages’ storm

WALES’ education secretary has revealed more about the context to the four-year-old message sent by First Minister Vaughan Gething which has thrown Welsh politics into a tailspin.

Lynne Neagle, pictured right, spoke out in the Senedd as the First Minister faces a growing cacophony of outrage over the difference between this newly emerged 2020 message in which he said he was deleting messages and his previous evidence to the Covid Inquiry that his messages were lost during a phone upgrade.

Ms Neagle said that the thenhealth minister’s message, in which he said he was deleting messages because they might later be released under Freedom of Information laws, had been sent after a meeting of the Labour group in which they had been discussing exams and children and young people in August 2020. On August 17, 2020, the Welsh Government announced that A-level and GCSE students would be awarded the grades estimated for them by their teachers and not by an algorithm.

Mr Gething’s message said: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FoI and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”

But Ms Neagle insisted that no decisions had been made at that meeting and could not have been because it was a Labour group meeting and then-education minister Kirsty Williams, a Lib Dem, had not been present.

The revelation about Mr Gething’s 2020 message has led to criticism in the Houses of Parliament from Welsh Secretary David TC Davies and in the Senedd from opposition politicians.

Plaid’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has accused Mr Gething of committing perjury. Mr Gething denies any wrongdoing.

A spokesman for the Covid inquiry said they have been made aware of the message and are considering whether Mr Gething will be asked to give further evidence as a result.

Ms Neagle, promoted to the cabinet by Vaughan Gething, was asked about the messages by Conservative MS Tom Giffard.

She said: “I am really concerned about the way a message, which was basically a chat after a group meeting, has been blown up into the thing that it has been blown up into.

“I do actually remember the group meeting. I was chair of the children, young people and education committee at the time. And I can tell you that there were no decisions made at that meeting. The meeting was there to give Labour members, including myself, the opportunity to discuss what had happened the week before, which had been a very challenging week for children and young people, and the government, to give us the

opportunity to air what was happening in our constituencies, and to the best of my recollection there were absolutely no decisions made in that meeting.

“It was simply a method of updating the Labour group on the actions that were being taken to support young people through this period. And indeed, you’ll recall that the cabinet secretary for education at that time, who I hold in the highest regard, was Kirsty Williams, who wasn’t even in the Labour group.”

Conservative MS Mr Giffard said it “raised a number of questions”.

“You said that no decisions were made in that meeting, but such a meeting was not available to Members of other groups in the Senedd at that point.

“I’ve checked with our group, there was no invitation around that period, in August 2020, for Conservative members to have that briefing, if you like, from the Welsh Government in terms of education policy handling at that moment in time; it was just available to Labour members.

“It does raise a wider question about how much influence and information was available to Labour MSs before decisions were made public. As chair of the children and young people’s committee at the time, can you speak to the nature of the education decisions that you were aware of before they were being made public?”

Ms Neagle called his question “a bit desperate”.

She said the Welsh Government worked with all parties during the pandemic and anyone could have asked for a meeting with a minister. “I think the government was open and inclusive to a fault, really,” she said.

She said: “The meeting that you’ve referred to – there were no decisions taken. It was simply to allow Labour members to talk about what was happening in their constituencies.”