Wales to swear in first black leader
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Wales is set to appoint its first black leader after Vaughan Gething was announced as the winner of the Welsh Labour leadership election on Saturday.
Gething will succeed Mark Drakeford, 69, who announced in December that he was stepping down.
The 50-year-old said he would have “the honour of becoming the first black leader in any European country” when he becomes Welsh first minister next week.
“Today, we turn a page in the book of our nation’s history. A history we write together,” he told Labour party members in Cardiff.
Labour heads the devolved administration in Cardiff and Gething is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday.
“His appointment as first minister of Wales, the first black leader in the UK, will be an historic moment that speaks to the progress and values of modern-day Wales,” UK Labour leader Keir Starmer said in a statement.
Gething was born in Zambia to a white father from Wales and a black Zambian mother.
Once he takes office, the leaders of three of the UK’s four governments will be non-white.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is of Indian descent, while the parents of Scotland’s pro-independence first minister Humza Yousaf migrated from Pakistan.
