Former MP says he was scolded by PNP colleagues for supporting JLP member's motion in parliament

A former Member of Parliament (MP) aligned to the People's National Party (PNP) has disclosed details of how he was chided by colleagues for supporting a motion moved in Parliament by a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) counterpart.

The motion for reparations from the United Kingdom for slavery was moved by Mike Henry, the long-serving MP for Clarendon Central, who is aligned to the JLP, which was in Opposition at the time.

Lloyd B Smith, the former MP for St James Central, recounted the day the motion was put before the parliament for a vote.

“I am new to parliament and I have this sense of independence, so when I see all of my colleagues on my side voting against the motion, simply because it was coming from Mike Henry, nothing else, me decide fi vote along with Mike Henry,” he said on Wednesday during a media roundtable discussion organised by Jamaica Accountability Metre Portal.

His decision angered some of his colleagues, he recounted.

“If you see the looks that me get,” he said.

“As the session ended I was dragged into a room and I was told you can't do that. It's not allowed, that's not a part of our system,” the former deputy House Speaker recalled.

He recounted, too, how a late MP told him: ”Lloyd, you young to this thing, but the best thing you do, if you don't want to support what is there, that's the best time to go to the restroom so that when the vote takes place you are not there.”

- Livern Barrett

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