The first act this afternoon is the nomination of First Minister. I invite nominations for the appointment of First Minister. Carwyn Jones.

Llywydd, under Standing Order 8, may I nominate Mark Drakeford as First Minister of Wales?

Are there any further nominations? Janet Finch-Saunders. 

Diolch, Llywydd. On behalf of the Welsh Conservative Assembly group, I am proud to nominate Paul Davies AM.

Any further nominations?

On behalf of the Plaid Cymru, I nominate Adam Price as First Minister of Wales. 

Any further nominations? There are none. As there are now three nominations, I will conduct a vote by roll call and invite each Member present to vote for a candidate. I will call each Member in alphabetical order. Please clearly state the name of the candidate you support when I call your name, or indicate clearly that you wish to abstain. In accordance with Standing Order 8.2, neither the Deputy Presiding Officer nor I are permitted to vote. And that brings us to the roll call, and the first name, Mick Antoniw.

Mark Drakeford.

Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Adam Price. 

Mohammad Asghar.

Paul Davies.

Gareth Bennett. 

Abstain. 

Hannah Blythyn.

Mark Drakeford. 

Dawn Bowden.

Mark Drakeford. 

Michelle Brown.

Abstain.

Jayne Bryant. 

Mark Drakeford.

Angela Burns.

Paul Davies.

Hefin David.

Mark Drakeford.

Alun Davies.

Mark Drakeford. 

Andrew R.T. Davies. 

Paul Davies.

Paul Davies.

Paul Davies. [Laughter.]

Suzy Davies.

Paul Davies. 

Mark Drakeford.

Mark Drakeford.

Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

Mark Drakeford. 

Rebecca Evans.

Mark Drakeford.

Janet Finch-Saunders. 

Paul Davies.

Russell George.

Paul Davies.

Vaughan Gething. 

Mark Drakeford.

John Griffiths.

Mark Drakeford. 

Lesley Griffiths.

Mark Drakeford. 

Llyr Gruffydd. 

Adam Price.

Siân Gwenllian. 

Adam Price.

Neil Hamilton.

Abstain. 

Mike Hedges. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Vikki Howells. 

Mark Drakeford.

Jane Hutt.

Mark Drakeford. 

Mark Isherwood.

Paul Davies. 

Huw Irranca-Davies.

Mark Drakeford.

Julie James. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Caroline Jones. 

Abstain. 

Carwyn Jones. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Helen Mary Jones. 

Adam Price. 

Mandy Jones is not present. Steffan Lewis is not present. Dai Lloyd.

Adam Price. 

Neil McEvoy.

Adam Price. 

David Melding. 

Paul Davies. 

Jeremy Miles. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Darren Millar.

Paul Davies. 

Eluned Morgan. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Julie Morgan.

Mark Drakeford. 

Lynne Neagle.

Mark Drakeford. 

Rhianon Passmore. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Adam Price. 

Adam Price. 

Nick Ramsay. 

Paul Davies. 

Jenny Rathbone. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Mark Reckless. 

Paul Davies. 

David Rees. 

Mark Drakeford. 

David Rowlands. 

Abstain.

Jack Sargeant. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Bethan Sayed. 

Adam Price. 

Ken Skates. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Lee Waters. 

Mark Drakeford.

Joyce Watson.

Mark Drakeford. 

Kirsty Williams. 

Mark Drakeford. 

Leanne Wood. 

Adam Price. 

We will now pause for the clerk to confirm the result of the vote. 

Talk amongst yourselves.

The result of the vote is as follows: Mark Drakeford 30 votes, Paul Davies 12 votes, Adam Price nine votes, with five abstentions. As he has received over half of the votes cast, I declare that Mark Drakeford is nominated for appointment as First Minister of this Senedd. In accordance with section 47(4) of the Government of Wales Act 2006, I will recommend to Her Majesty the appointment of Mark Drakeford as First Minister. I invite Mark Drakeford to address the Assembly. Mark Drakeford. [Applause.]

Llywydd, thank you very much.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Could I begin by thanking all those who have supported my nomination here this afternoon? And particular thanks, of course, are due to my immediate predecessor, Carwyn Jones, for putting my name before the Assembly, and for the help that he has so consistently offered over many years, but especially over the last few days of transition.

It is, as you all know from yesterday's proceedings, an enormous privilege to lead a political party here in Wales, and even more so to be nominated and elected as First Minister in the National Assembly. I am absolutely conscious both of the opportunity and of the responsibility that comes with this position. And in that context, could I thank those Members, in all parts of the Chamber, for their generosity since Thursday of last week? I really am very grateful for all the messages that I have received.

Today, Dirprwy Lywydd, quite rightly, parties have put forward their nominations for First Minister, and we have carried out that essential democratic process—an election. In the many elections in which I have been involved, almost all of those who have taken part do so because of the contribution they seek to make to the Welsh public service, and, certainly, all those who have been nominated today live in that essential tradition.

Dirprwy Lywydd, when I was elected as leader of the Labour Party last week, I said that I wanted to be a beacon of hope in a darkening world. Today is not a moment for partisan remarks, but the skies around us have darkened even further in the days that have followed. A species of madness has descended on the Conservative Party, in which significant numbers of its Members of Parliament appear to believe that our country's future is best secured by heaping a leadership contest onto the burning platform that Brexit has become. I really do believe, Dirprwy Lywydd, that here, in a much newer and very different institution, things really are done differently and almost always that things are done better.

Yesterday, we talked a lot about the class of 1999. And those of us who were, in different ways, involved from the earliest days of the National Assembly will remember that it too was intended to be a beacon of hope in Wales, a place where old and discredited ways of doing politics could be set aside, and a different recipe developed, in which the things we agree on would be as important as the things on which we differ, and in which the matters that unite our nation would be given some priority over the matters that threaten to divide us. Now, I am not talking about a politics drained of passion or of fundamental beliefs. I believe in a politics that is committed and driven by the sort of society we want to help create—diversity, solidarity, community and equality—on this side of the Chamber, but where we conduct that politics with respect and with a focus on our common humanity, where we recognise that the way in which we conduct ourselves makes a difference in a fractured and uneasy world—a kinder sort of politics.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I thought of that a good deal yesterday when Carwyn mentioned our organ donation legislation. On that long evening when we debated the Bill here on the floor of the Assembly, we were a beacon of hope in lives where hope was in very short supply. But we conducted that debate, I believed, in a way that matched its subject: passionate on all sides of the Chamber, but with no doubt that every contribution was motivated by wanting to make the best possible difference. The Bill we passed was better as a result of that debate, and the Act that we've put on the statute book has gone on to change lives here in Wales and to inspire change beyond our borders, and that's the sort of politics that I believe we all would want to see more of here in this National Assembly.

Dirprwy Lywydd, the first time I came into this Chamber was not as all of you are, here by right of election; I came in here first in the wake of the then First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, who was making his first visit here as the Chamber became ready for occupation. Any changing of the guard is a time for reflection, as we found yesterday, and my old friend and mentor has been much in my thoughts in recent times. He wasn't an easy convert to this new building. Those of us who were here at the time will remember that, as its foundations were being put in place, the original building—Tŷ Hywel—would sway from side to side under the impact of the pile driving and a not-very-reassuring announcement would be made over the tannoy, advising those of us on the upper floors not to be alarmed because the building was designed to sway about. 'They're knocking up a new lean-to' was what the First Minister of the time was apt to say to visitors as this happened.

He became a convert, I believe, to the place where he spent so many hours, and where, the next time I am here, it will be to answer your questions. You will have seen perhaps amongst the many attractions of being First Minister, that that opportunity has not been the one that most immediately appealed to me. And that, I think, is at least partly because of those long years in which every Tuesday was dominated by preparing the then First Minister for that ordeal. The day would begin by Rhodri going through the formidable file you have all seen, identifying those places where more or better information was required. We would then attempt, usually unsuccessfully, to guess where Nick Bourne or Ieuan Wyn Jones, or latterly Kirsty Williams, would be trying to make trouble later that day. Rhodri would disappear; I would be left to try to find the missing information from teams at Cathays Park, who were, inevitably, on leave, on a training day or had deserted to the Wales Office, before Rhodri returned to absorb, in that astonishing blotting-paper way he possessed, everything that had been assembled for him.

Despite all of that meticulous preparation, how easily it could all go wrong. Like the Llywydd, I have no intention of writing any memoirs, but if I did, then the Tuesday when the BBC started reporting in the One O'Clock News, and with less than half an hour to go before FMQs, that a group of Welsh Government civil servants had been 'discovered', as the BBC put it, at a bonding session in a sauna in Llandovery remains seared in my memory. [Laughter.]

On those occasions when there was clearly trouble ahead, Rhodri would set off for the lift, and I would set off back to my desk. On those days, the then First Minister would pause as he left the room and offer this wise advice: 'Tin hat on', he would say, and then he would set off for this Chamber. So, if there are any family members of mine in the gallery still wondering what I need for Christmas—[Laughter.]—you’ve heard it this afternoon. I look forward, suitably hatted, to seeing you all on the first Tuesday when we resume in the new year. And, in the meantime,

Merry Christmas to you all. [Applause.]

Well done, and many congratulations, Mark.