By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis says Southern Shores MP Leroy Major “spoke the truth” about internal rifts in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), despite Mr Major’s attempts to walk back those remarks and discredit the journalist who reported them.

In the House of Assembly, Dr Minnis said Mr Major had simply said what many within the governing party believe: that PLP backbenchers are being sidelined while Cabinet ministers enjoy unequal access to government resources.

“Despite the PLP trying to clean up those remarks, Southern Shores spoke the truth,” Dr Minnis said. “There are others on the PLP side who are frustrated. They are just scared to speak. I speak for Southern Shores today — even PLPs see this is not a government for all the people.”

“The governing side can now pretend all is unified, all they want. Those public statements of dissent show that there is division within the party.”

Dr Minnis’ remarks come in the wake of Mr Major’s highly publicised about-face. After giving an interview in which he criticised the unequal distribution of resources and expressed frustration over the treatment of backbenchers, Mr Major reversed course in in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, claiming his comments were misunderstood and misrepresented by The Tribune.

“That interview was totally about Leroy Major and Southern Shores,” he told MPs. “Whatever that reporter said about me and my colleagues is incorrect.”

He even pleaded with Opposition MP Shannendon Cartwright not to “go down a train” by referencing the article.

But The Tribune stood behind its reporting and released audio yesterday of the interview that directly contradicted Mr Major’s claims.

Mr Major looked uncomfortable as Dr Minnis revisited the controversy in the House of Assembly yesterday –– head bowed, occasionally smiling as the remarks were aired once again.

Opposition leader Michael Pintard used the moment to deliver a pointed message to Major: Stand your ground. 

“We know he’s under tremendous pressure and so the government has treated a number of its members quite badly, and at the end of the day, he spoke, so he’s unable to take that back,” Mr Pintard said.

“And I regret, a man of his stature, who’s a minister in the church, a representative of an entire constituency, that he was bullied into again, reciting a line that no doubt the party wrote for him.”

Mr Pintard added: “We encourage him to stay the course, to challenge the government where necessary, and don’t let them cause you to be the way the prime minister is. He flip-flops. Once he believes pressure is coming, he turns in a different direction.”