THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY (BLP) is “volatile and selfish” and Opposition Leader Mia Mottley should have seen the challenge to her authority coming, said Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Member of Parliament for St James South, Donville Inniss.
“We recognise that there is no need for us to be distracted as the DLP Government but as a politician I cannot help but reflect on the state of affairs within the BLP to date,” Inniss said.
“What is happening is that the parliamentary grouping of the BLP seems to have lost confidence in Miss Mottley and I think Miss Mottley, if she was politically astute, should have seen this coming down the line, like a train going full blast down a dark tunnel, and should have been better equipped, but I can’t give Miss Mottley much political advice,” he said.
Speaking to the media yesterday during a break in a Pan American Health Organisation/Caribbean Epidemiology Centre Emergency Vector Control workshop, the Minister of Health said the current turmoil within the BLP was in stark contrast to the situation in the DLP.
“What has been exposed this week is the fact that they are a very volatile and selfish political group, whose interest is more about themselves than anyone else in society,” he said.
He added that he hoped Barbadians would realise that while BLP members were “drawing daggers and seeking to end each other’s political careers”, the DLP was getting on with matters of the state.
Inniss played down any similar issues within the DLP calling any perceived leadership battles “figments of imagination”.
“If, perchance, there is a need for leadership issues to be addressed, they will be done in a decent manner within the party,” he said.
Inniss also noted that while former Prime Minister Owen Arthur was seen “as some kind of god or messiah”, Barbadians’ memory was not that short.
“We well remember the public fighting, debacles and treatment of the ministers and public officers by Mr Arthur, which I would not wish to have revisited.” upon this country.”
