Gething: Europe’s first Black leader

By Will Hazell Vaughan Gething has been announced as the next First Minister of Wales, becoming the first black politician to lead a European country. His victory in the Welsh Labour leadership election means that, for the first time since devolution began in the late 1990s, none of the UK nations will be led by a white male. Humza Yousaf, the Scottish First Minister, is the son of first-generation immigrants from Pakistan, while Northern Ireland is led by a female first minister and deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly. Gething, currently minister for the economy, beat Jeremy Miles, the education minister, winning 51.7 per cent of the vote. In his acceptance speech on Saturday, he said: “Today we turn a page in the book of our nation’s history – not just because I have the honour of becoming the first black leader in any European country, but because a generational dial has jumped too. “Devolution is not something I have had to get used to or adapt to, or apologise for. Devolution, Welsh solutions to Welsh problems and opportunities, is in my blood – it’s what I have always known through my adult political life.” Vaughan Gething celebrates...