MS refuses to say if Gething leak came from her phone

A Labour politician has repeatedly refused to confirm or deny whether her phone was the source of leaked text messages which piled pressure on former first minister Vaughan Gething, before he stepped down.

His administration was plunged deeper into crisis last May when it emerged he told other ministers he would delete messages from a pandemic-era group chat in 2020.

Hannah Blythyn, who was sacked from the Welsh government as the alleged leaker, has denied giving the messages to the media.

But in an interview for a BBC Wales podcast, the Labour Member of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn refused to be drawn on whether the messages originally came from her phone, as Mr Gething had alleged.

Blythyn, who is currently chair of the Senedd's standards committee, told Walescast she was unable to answer the question because no investigation had taken place.

Gething's administration was in turmoil from its start in early 2024, after the MS for Cardiff South and Penarth obtained a £200,000 donation during his leadership campaign from a man previously convicted of environmental offences.

The leak of iMessages from a ministerial group chat to Nation.Cymru made his problems worse. Gething himself denied he ever actually deleted the texts, and later sacked Blythyn.

In a dramatic statement in July, Blythyn denied ever leaking to the media.

But the next day Gething told the Senedd that the Welsh government had received a "photograph of a fragment of an iMessage chat from a journalist" in May.

BBC Wales was told by sources at the time that Ms Blythyn's phone was identified because her details were absent from the list of participants listed on the photograph.

News website Nation.Cymru, for its part, denied Blythyn was the source.

Days later, Mr Gething was forced to quit by the resignation of several members of his government. He was replaced by Eluned Morgan.

Blythyn has not commented publicly on the matter since her personal statement in Senedd, which she made following a period of ill health.

During that time, she was absent from a vote of no confidence that Gething lost.

Following an interview with Walescast about her committee's work on the recall of misbehaving politicians, Blythyn was asked five times if the messages had come from her phone.

The MS repeatedly said she was unable to answer the question.

"I've been clear that I said everything that I'm going to say about it on the floor of the Senedd chamber," she said.

She said there should have been a proper inquiry.

"These questions are not for me. I can't answer them. I was never under investigation," she said.

She said it had a "incredible detrimental impact on my health" and she wished "things had been handled better".

On the third time of asking, Blythyn said there was "no conclusive evidence to say" the messages came from her phone.

After it was put to her that the only name that was not visible on the original screenshot was Blythyn's, the MS said: "I can't answer those questions because I wasn't given the courtesy of a proper investigation."

She said she was not shown the evidence for her removal prior to the sacking.

Gething's case that Blythyn had refused to have a meeting where he could show her the evidence, she added: "I was offered it after I was already ill".

Gething published evidence of the text messages on the day of his resignation.