Mike Henry defends absence from 90% of House sittings

Government backbencher Lester Mike Henry, who attended three of 53 parliamentary sittings last year, has sought to defend his extended absence, noting a knee injury that required surgery.

The 88-year-old, who serves as member of Parliament (MP) for Clarendon Central, said that “extensive” rehabilitative therapy coupled with Parliament’s lack of an elevator forced him to miss the sittings.

In a Gleaner interview yesterday, Henry, however, was firm that he would not resign, arguing that he has served his constituents in areas outside of Parliament.

Further, he said he was on the cusp of retirement after serving more than 30 unbroken years in the House. He was first elected as MP for the constituency in 1980.

“I applied for leave of absence to have a surgery done on my knee. So I was given what I consider the time in relation to recovery which is still part of my service right now. My left knee cap was replaced,” said Henry, the longest-serving Jamaican MP.

“I had to learn to walk without a stick. If you look at Parliament, the stairs have no handrails at the middle. So I come up through the entrance of the Speaker, with her permission,” he said when asked about missing 90 per cent of the sittings.

He said, too, that he has not been able to climb long flights of stairs, sit, or stand for long periods, and so he attends sittings when he is able to.

“Why would I resign?” he responded to questions about whether he could adequately represent constituents in the House.

“I’m retiring. I’ve told everyone I’m not running again. I’m not resigning. I’m still servicing what I can in terms of the constituency. Usually I speak in relation to the topics [in Parliament]. So I have carried out whatever duties I can, but I don’t have any reason to resign at this point in time,” he argued.

Henry, who was a government minister in the Holness Administration up to 2020, said both House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert and Clerk of the House Valrie Curtis have on record his situation and were again, “quite recently”, provided with an update from his doctor.

MP attendance

His comments follow a Sunday Gleaner report that indicated that 41 per cent of legislators in the Lower House recorded below-average attendance at sittings last year.

A further look at the data from Gordon House showed that just over half of the 26 falling below the average did not attend 20 or more sittings.

The average number of sittings missed for 2022 was 14.

Both Henry and former Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips, who represents St Andrew East Central, attended only three sittings last year.

Phillips also said that he was granted leave from the House for treatment related to his colon cancer diagnosis.

Parliament’s administrative arm said that it would not provide copies of apologies submitted by MPs, citing privacy concerns.

Leader of Opposition Business Phillip Paulwell has since rubbished the position, noting that apologies are public records.

The Gleaner has not yet received the full attendance data requested from Parliament some three weeks later.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com