The Zambia-born First Minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, is resigning. With the Labour politician’s elevation in March, every national leader in Great Britain was an ethnic minority. Now, all of them have gone.
Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland, was the first to lose office. The Pakistani-heritage Muslim resigned as leader of the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) in April. He had been facing a no-confidence vote after breaking a coalition agreement with the Greens, who propped up his anti-free speech administration in the Scottish government—roughly equivalent to a U.S. state government.
Unlike Scotland and Wales, England lacks a devolved government, with the British central government administering its domestic affairs. Until July 5, the British government was led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an Indian-heritage Hindu. He has been replaced by Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer after leading the Conservatives into their worst-ever general election defeat.
Neither Yousaf, Sunak, nor Gething became national leaders after winning at the ballot box; all of them were installed by their parties between elections.
Yousaf’s leftist party has replaced him with John Swinney. Like Starmer, he is a white man in his sixties. Gething’s replacement is yet to be determined, but another white man is the favorite to replace him: Jeremy Miles.
