Vaughan Gething: Wales’s first minister loses confidence vote
Wales’s first minister has lost a confidence vote.
Twenty-nine members of the Senedd voted in favour of the motion of no confidence in Vaughan Gething, while 27 voted against.
Mr Gething has only been first minister since March, but in that time he has faced questions over a controversial £200k donation to his leadership campaign from a man convicted of environmental offences.
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He said the donations had been made in line with party protocols and has refused calls to return the money.
The motion of no confidence was put forward by the Conservatives, the largest opposition group in the Senedd (Welsh parliament).
Despite losing, Mr Gething does not have to step down as the vote is not binding, but it does put further pressure on the embattled leader.
He has made clear in the aftermath of the debate he will not resign as first minister and will continue in post.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has given his backing to the party’s leader in Wales, telling reporters on the campaign trail Mr Gething was doing a “good job”.
Vaughan Gething was elected first minister in March
‘Not a gimmick’
Introducing the motion tabled by his party, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said it was “not a gimmick”.
“This was talked of prior to the general election,” he said.
“It is about judgement, honesty and transparency.”
Leader of Plaid Cymru, the pro-independence party, denied the motion was “tribal party politics”.
“We must be different to Westminster, not only in words but in deeds too,” he said.
“Today, we, these benches, are acting in what we firmly believe in the interests of the people of Wales.”
Vaughan Gething. Pic: Reuters
But chair of the Welsh Labour group in the Senedd, Vikki Howells, said the motion was “politics at its worst” and was a “cynical Tory gimmick”.
“With the Tory party tanking in the polls…it’s no wonder that they will do anything, anything at all to try and shift the spotlight from their own record of abject failure,” she said.
One Labour member, Joyce Watson, said the decision to hold the confidence vote on the eve of the D-Day anniversary was “disrespectful” to veterans.
Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds said she no longer had confidence in the first minister.
But she said she had “never voted in a vote of confidence here in the Senedd” and had in fact voted to confirm Mr Gething as first minister in March.
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‘Mistakes’
Responding to the debate, Wales’s first minister said he has “made and will continue to make mistakes”.
“It does hurt deeply when my intentions are questioned,” Mr Gething added.
“I will not shy away from scrutiny and challenge.”
He reiterated that all rules had been followed.
Speaking after the vote, Mr Gething said it was a “very disappointing afternoon”.
“To go into the Senedd for what is a transparent gimmick in the general election, led by the Welsh Conservatives, to go into a position where the ill-health in two of our members has affected the outcome of the vote,” he said.
“And as I said, on ill-health grounds, we have always paired. That means you even up people from one party to another.
“We did that for more than three months for the leader of the Welsh Conservatives.”
He said he was “proud” to be first minister of Wales.
“To serve and lead my country. That’s what I’ve done today. That’s what I’ll carry on doing,” he added.
Read more:
Why Wales’s FM faced confidence vote
Plans to cut summer holidays in Wales put on hold
As well as questions over donations, Mr Gething has in recent weeks faced accusations he misled the COVID Inquiry over deleted messages and sacked one of his ministers for allegedly leaking information to the media.
That former minister was one of two Labour members who were absent for the confidence vote.
Neither Hannah Blythyn nor former transport minister Lee Waters voted.
Plaid Cymru then withdrew from a cooperation deal they had with the Labour government in which the party lent its support on dozens of key policy areas.
A US federal court has frozen around $57.65 million worth of the stablecoin USDC in a class action case over the controversial Libra memecoin.
Onchain data shared with Cointelegraph by the class group’s lawyer, Max Burwick, shows nearly $57 million worth of USDC (USDC) was frozen on May 28 after a Manhattan court agreed to a temporary freeze.
“Yesterday, a federal court in SDNY [Southern District of New York] entered a Temporary Restraining Order at our request, Burwick Law, supported by Tim Treanor, freezing approximately 57.65 million USDC held at Circle,“ Burwick told Cointelegraph.
He added that the court is scheduled to hold a hearing on June 9 to determine whether the assets will remain frozen as the class-action lawsuit progresses.
Burwick is representing Omar Hurlock and other plaintiffs in a class-action suit against crypto venture firm Kelsier Ventures and its three sibling co-founders, Gideon, Thomas and Hayden Davis, on March 17, alleging they created the Libra (LIBRA) cryptocurrency and misled investors to siphon over $100 million from one-sided liquidity pools.
The suit also named blockchain infrastructure companies, KIP Protocol and its CEO, Julian Peh, along with Meteora and its co-founder, Benjamin Chow, as defendants.
Chow’s lawyer, Kelsier Ventures and KIP Protocol were contacted for comment.
LIBRA reached a $4 billion market cap following an X post from Argentine President Javier Milei on Feb. 14 before crashing 94% hours later.
The saga caused a political scandal for Milei, prompting members of Argentina’s opposition party to call for his impeachment, though little traction was gained beyond those statements.
Data from polling platform Zuban Córdoba in March suggested that the Libra scandal negatively impacted Milei’s image and the national management approval rating.
Two Solana wallets with total USDC balances worth $57.65 million were frozen on May 28 at 3:15 am and 3:18 am UTC.
Data from Solana’s blockchain explorer, Solscan, shows that the address “3Fwr…ZQpK” had $44.59 million worth of the stablecoin frozen, while a little over $13 million was frozen from the wallet address “3nHw…xNgH.”
Both wallets were frozen by the Multisig Freeze Authority, Solscan data shows.
Milei closes Libra investigation in Argentina
On May 19, Milei signed a decree to shut down a task force established to investigate the Libra scandal.
Related: Solana may be a memecoin ‘one-trick pony’ — Standard Chartered
No action was taken against Milei or any other Argentine official allegedly tied to the scandal.
However, some critics say a legitimate investigation wasn’t properly conducted in the first place.
“It was always a fake, they never dared to investigate anything at all, and they’re covering each other up because they’re completely up to their necks in it,” Itai Hagman, an economist and member of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina, said in a May 20 X post.
Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge
The US Labor Department has officially rescinded guidance issued during the Biden administration that limited the inclusion of cryptocurrency in 401(k) retirement plans.
On May 28, the Labor Department revoked a 2022 guidance that had urged fiduciaries to be “extremely cautious” when considering cryptocurrency for 401(k) retirement plans. The move could give asset managers more flexibility to include digital assets in retirement investment options.
The government agency removed the guidance asserting that it represented a departure from the department’s “historically neutral, principled-based approach to fiduciary investment decisions.”
“We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not D.C. bureaucrats,” said US Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The Labor Department under Biden criticized the practice of marketing cryptocurrencies to 401(k) participants. At the time, the agency claimed cryptocurrencies posed “significant risks and challenges” to participants’ retirement accounts due to their “speculative and volatile” nature and “valuation concerns,” among other reasons.
The American Banking Association (ABA) criticized the 2022 compliance release, claiming that it did not make the guidance available for public comment and review prior to issuance.
Related: Fidelity introduces retirement accounts with minimal-fee crypto investing
Trump administration shifts crypto landscape
President Trump has pledged to make the United States “the world capital of crypto” during his 2024 campaign.
Under his administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission has scaled back several enforcement actions and investigations involving Web3 companies such as Uniswap, Coinbase, and Kraken, while also engaging in policy discussions on topics like real-world asset tokenization and the regulatory status of certain tokens.
At the same time, some lawmakers have expressed concerns about Trump’s involvement in the crypto space, including calls for greater scrutiny of his associated ventures.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
Bilal Bin Saqib, head of Pakistan’s crypto council, announced on May 28 that the country is moving to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saqib said the government of Pakistan followed the United States’ lead in establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve and is embracing pro-crypto regulatory policies. The government official told the audience:
“Today is a very historic day. Today, I announce the Pakistani government is setting up its own government-led Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, and we want to thank the United States of America again because we were inspired by them.”
The announcement represents a significant departure from the government of Pakistan’s previous stance on cryptocurrencies, holding that crypto would never be legal in the country.
Pakistan’s shift reflects the broader trend of nation-states adopting pro-crypto policies following the regulatory shift in Washington, DC under the President Donald Trump administration.
Related: Pakistan appoints special assistant to PM on blockchain and crypto
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