There’s positive discussion of the Labour party about who we put up for selection and election in Wales and in the rest of the UK, in the Senedd here, as well as in the UK parliament. I want us to have a parliamentary Labour party that reflects Britain as it is today.” verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{

Black in Time | BookTrust

The Cardiff South and Penarth constituency has been a safe Labour seat since its creation. But that didn’t stop Vaughan Gething pushing to increase the party’s vote share. At the last Senedd election in 2021, he won the biggest majority of seats under the unique circumstances of the pandemic. “I was making national choices for a country where just over 6% of the population are not white. My race didn’t stop them voting for me,” he told the Guardian.

It’s hard not to be noticed, but it’s easy to be missed,” Gething says, stressing the importance of persistence in politics. “You don’t always succeed on your first or even your second try. There are lots of people who have ended up in parliament because they have been persistent and refused to take no for an answer. That doesn’t guarantee they’re always going to be the greatest parliamentary lights. But the determination to want to carry on is important. But it is also important to make sure that your processes are fair as possible.” From Big Brother to The Great British Bake Off: Alison Hammond’s chaotic rise to national treasure status Born in Zambia and raised from the age of two in Dorset, Gething became politically active as a 17-year-old campaigning for the 1992 general election. He wasn’t elected as a member of the Senedd for another two decades. Unsuccessfully standing for election to the Welsh National Assembly in 1999, he later became a councillor on Cardiff council, while working at Thompsons solicitors. Eventually he became the youngest-yet president of the Wales TUC at the age of 34.