The Welsh parliament has been recalled from summer recess so members can vote for a new first minister.
Members of the Senedd (MS) will have to go back to the parliament in Cardiff on 6 August after health minister, Baroness Eluned Morgan, became Welsh Labour leader on Wednesday.
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The Welsh Labour leadership contest was due to take place over two months, ending after the summer break finishes in September, but Baroness Morgan, 57, was the sole contestant so became leader without any campaign.
She is replacing Vaughan Gething after he announced his resignation last week following a row over campaign donations.
However, she does not automatically replace him as first minister, with the whole Senedd required to vote on who will become Wales’s new leader.
Eluned Morgan. File pic: Welsh government
The Senedd broke up for its summer break on Monday but Mr Gething requested MSs be recalled and the presiding officer has accepted his request.
It is expected Baroness Morgan will be voted in as first minister as Labour holds a majority in the Senedd.
She is Welsh Labour’s first female leader and is set to become Wales’s first female first minister.
The Llywydd (Presiding Officer) of the Senedd, Elin Jones MS, said: “I received a request from the first minister to recall the Senedd for members to nominate the next person to take on the role of first minister of Wales.
“I have agreed to the request and I have written to Members of the Senedd to inform them of the recall.”
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The Welsh Conservatives had already called for the Senedd to be recalled and said they were grateful it has been “to give Wales some much-needed stability”.
Leader of the party, Andrew RT Davies, said: “Considering the chaos that has engulfed the Labour government in Cardiff Bay you would have thought they would have brought this decision forward by bringing in an earlier recall to give Wales that stability.
“Given that Eluned Morgan’s delivery as health minister was questionable, you would have also thought that she would want to get going straight away by being elected by the Senedd as first minister.”
Eluned Morgan backed Vaughan Gething for the leadership in March. Pic: Senedd Cymru/Welsh parliament
Vaughan Gething scandal
Mr Gething made history in March when he became the first black leader of any European country.
However, he continually faced questions over a £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign from a company owned by a man twice convicted of environmental offences.
Critics said Mr Gething’s leadership campaign should not have accepted the money, but the first minister said the donation was within the rules and was declared in line with party protocol.
A row also ensued after he sacked minister Hannah Blythyn for allegedly leaking phone messages, which she denied and a newspaper later said she was not their source.
Plaid Cymru then pulled out of its co-operation agreement with Mr Gething’s government.
When he resigned, Mr Gething published evidence he said underpinned his decision to sack Ms Blythyn, including that a screengrab of the leak did not show her initials – suggesting it must have come from her phone.
But this came after the resignations of the ministers, which made his position untenable.
