CAMPAIGNERS have condemned the £200,000 donation to Vaughan Gething’s Welsh Labour leadership bid from a firm convicted for environmental dumping.

The Welsh Green Party questioned today whether such large sums of money should be donated for internal campaigns after it emerged that the firm at the centre of the row, Dauson Environmental Group — “a multi-disciplined waste recycling, recovery and demolition contractor with expertise in land regeneration” — has applied to build a solar farm in Mr Gething’s constituency.

Dauson boss David Neal was given a suspended prison sentence in 2013 for dumping waste in a conservation site and four years later was given another suspended prison sentence for failing to remove the waste.

Mr Gething has said he was not aware of the plan before he accepted the donation and a spokesperson said he would not be in a position to decide on the planning application as the rules prevent ministers from deciding on business in their own constituencies.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies wrote to First Minister Mark Drakeford asking for the matter to be investigated under the ministerial code. But in his reply, Mr Drakeford said: "[It] does not govern the process for the receipt of donations to Senedd members.”

Mr Davies raised the reply in First Minister’s Questions, and Mr Drakeford said: “The investigation advised me that there was no breach of the ministerial code.”

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth asked Mr Drakeford how the donation should be handled and whether it should be paid back.

The First Minister said the matter would be settled by Welsh Labour members in the current leadership ballot.

Welsh Green leader Anthony Slaughter told the Star: “It is deeply questionable that such eyewatering sums of money should play any part in an internal election, especially when the donation comes from an individual guilty of dumping toxic sludge in an environmentally sensitive area.

“The added perception of a potential conflict of interest regarding the solar farm planning application only underlines the damage caused by the toxic culture of large donations from across the board that permeates our politics on all sides. 

“We can only imagine the outraged reaction from Welsh Labour if this was a story about a Conservative minister.”

A spokesperson from left-wing group Welsh Labour Grassroots said: “It seems there’s a need for the financing of campaigns like this to be cleaned up and turned into a level playing field.”