Former Minister Calls for Return of Controversial £200,000 Donation from Waste Dumping Company

A former Welsh government minister, Lee Waters, has called on the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, to return a £200,000 donation given by Dauson Environment Group during the Welsh Labour leadership campaign.

The company's owner was previously prosecuted for illegally dumping waste.

Waters expressed discomfort with the situation, labeling it "shocking." A Welsh government minister, Jane Hutt, stated that all relevant rules had been followed.

The debates were initiated by the opposition.

In the Welsh Senedd, Labour MSs blocked Tory calls for an independent investigation into political donations and a cap on numbers, with Plaid Cymru also proposing the motion.

Welsh Conservative and Plaid Cymru Senedd members criticized Vaughan Gething, the Labour Minister for Economy and Transport, for not participating in the discussions.

Gething was absent for most of the proceedings and was previously supported by Labour MS Darren Millar (Waters) during the campaign, who spoke against the donations but felt uneasy about doing so.

Mr. Waters expressed his disappointment and disagreement with a political donation made by a firm with a history of damaging a protected area, the Gwent Levels.

He had previously considered the donation to be "unjustifiable and wrong." The donation occurred during efforts to preserve the area, making it particularly shocking for Mr. Waters.

Mr. Gething, the recipient of the donation, maintained that he followed the rules regarding political donations.

However, according to Mr. Waters, the focus should not be on the correctness of the paperwork but rather on the ethical judgment behind the donation.