Vaughan Gething set to become Wales’ 1st Black leader

Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labour Party leadership contest by securing 51.7 percent of the vote and will become the first Black leader of the semi-autonomous government.

"Today, we turn a page in the book of our nation’s history. A history we write together," Gething said after he won the election.

Gething will replace Mark Drakeford, who is expected to resign on March 19, with the Welsh parliament formally set to elect the next leader the following day.

After British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Scottish First Minister Humza Haroon Yousaf, Gething is the third leader who is a son of an immigrant in the UK.

Gething was born in Zambia to a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, Sunak has Indian heritage, while Yousaf was born to a Pakistani family in the UK.

Diversity at the top

There’s no denying British politics has changed, and quickly.

Before 2002, the country had never had a non-white Cabinet minister. Sunak likes to point out that his Cabinet is one of the most diverse in British history. It includes Home Secretary James Cleverly and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who are Black, and Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, whose parents immigrated from India.

Sunak told last year’s Conservative Party conference that he is “proud to be the first British Asian prime minister,” but “even prouder that it’s just not a big deal.”

The government’s diversity reflects years of work by the centre-right party to shake its “pale, male and stale” image and encourage people of colour to run for Parliament.

Sunder Katwala, who heads equality think-tank British Future, wrote in The Guardian that “ethnic diversity right at the top has become the ’new normal.’”

Tackling racism, discrimination

But critics say an increase in diversity in high office hasn't been accompanied by government policies to reduce wider social inequalities.

Some also accuse Sunak’s administration of deliberately politicizing race as a wedge issue during an election year in which the Conservatives trail far behind Labour in opinion polls.

They point to politicians like former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who claims multiculturalism has failed and says Britain faces an “invasion” of asylum-seekers. Braverman, whose Indian parents moved to Britain from Kenya and Mauritius, was fired by Sunak in November but remains a powerful and ambitious Conservative lawmaker.

“Some of our most divisive politicians are people like Suella Braverman,” former government adviser Samuel Kasumu told the BBC on Sunday.

“It is not the colour of your skin that matters when it comes to tackling racism, discrimination and bringing communities -- it has to be the content of your character and your willingness to lead. And that is not happening now.”