Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labor Party leadership contest on Saturday, setting him up to become the first Black leader of Wales' semi-autonomous government. Gething, the son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, will be the first Black leader of a government in the UK—and, according to him, of any European country. "Today, we turn a page in the book of our nation's history. A history we write together," Gething said in his victory speech, the AP reports. "Not just because I have the honor of becoming the first Black leader in any European country—but because the generational dial has jumped too."
Gething, who currently is Welsh economy minister, narrowly beat Education Minister Jeremy Miles in a race to replace First Minister Mark Drakeford. Drakeford, 69, announced late last year he would step down once a replacement was chosen. Gething, 50, won 51.7% of the votes cast by members of the party and affiliated trade unions, and Miles 48.3%. Once he is confirmed on Wednesday by the Welsh parliament, the Senedd, where Labor is the largest party, Gething will become the fifth first minister since Wales' national legislature was established in 1999.
Once Gething is in the post, three of the UK's four governments will have nonwhite leaders. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has Indian heritage, while Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf was born to a Pakistani family in Britain. Northern Ireland is led jointly by Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, meaning that for the first time there are no white male heads of government in the UK. Wales, which has a population of about 3 million, is one of four parts of the United Kingdom, along with England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Gething was Wales' health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I want us to use this moment as a starting point, for a more confident march into the future," he said Saturday.
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