Morgan under fire for 'victimising' Gwyther

Rhodri Morgan, the First Secretary of Wales, came under attack from Labour colleagues yesterday as he defended his decision to sack his vegetarian Agriculture Secretary.

Rhodri Morgan, the First Secretary of Wales, came under attack from Labour colleagues yesterday as he defended his decision to sack his vegetarian Agriculture Secretary.

Friends of Christine Gwyther, who was dismissed from her post on the eve of yesterday's Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, claimed that she had been victimised because she was a woman.

Carwyn Jones, Ms Gwyther's former deputy who replaced her in the £70,000-a-year job, spent his first day in post at the annual set-piece event of Welsh farming.

But Lorraine Barrett, a Labour member of the Welsh Assembly, who is also vegetarian, said that Ms Gwyther's friends were angry at the decision and claimed Mr Morgan had been swayed by farmers.

"Farmers have been very unfair to Christine. I think the fact that she was a woman and a vegetarian to boot, they just couldn't handle it. I think they're much happier now with a meat-eating male," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"Her portfolio was much wider than meat production. You don't have to be a doctor to be health secretary and you don't have to be a teacher to be education secretary," she said.

She added: "In this day and age, when so many of us are vegetarian, to think that would prevent you from doing a job as Agriculture Secretary is sad."

Ms Gwyther refused to grant any interviews yesterday but said in a statement that she was "naturally disappointed". "I wish my successor well in what is often a very difficult but rewarding brief," she said.

Mr Morgan said that he had decided to install Mr Jones in the post ahead of the agricultural show to give him a "fresh start".

The Welsh Farmers Union welcomed Ms Gwyther's sacking, claiming that her vegetarianism made it difficult for her to lobby strongly enough on behalf of the beef and lamb industry.

Ms Gwyther, a key appointment of former First Secretary Alun Michael, faced three censure motions in the Welsh Assembly for her handling of the portfolio, losing one of them.