Monday, June 1, 2026

Joe never expected a pick

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He and Prime Minister Mia Mottley had a long history of tension and he never expected to be in her Cabinet, says Bishop Joseph Atherley who shockingly left the Barbados Labour Party a week after its huge victory at the polls in 2018.

Atherley went on to become Leader of the Opposition days after the BLP claimed all 30 seats on May 24, but said yesterday it was democracy not money that motivated him to defect from the party at the height of its unprecedented popularity and later formed the People’s Party for Democracy and Development.

The former Minister of State in the Owen Arthur Administration was taking part in Starcom’s Brass Tacks Sunday in which he revealed the nature of his relationship with Mottley.

“I have had some heated run-ins with the Prime Minister before she was prime minister, while she was Leader of the Opposition and prior to her being Leader of the Opposition. They are people who were privy to these things; there weren’t things that were done in secret. They happened before the full glare and view of Cabinet.” (SB)

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