Ben Smith, the new OBA Leader as of Friday, suggests a decision had to be made about his predecessor after “the trust of the MPs had been broken”
Robert King is going to have to heal broken trust among his OBA colleagues.
This is what his successor and new OBA Leader Ben Smith says must take place, after 48 hours of drama in the Opposition camp.
“Some of the information that has been presented to the press by certain people – it’s not true”, Mr Smith said tonight following his ascension to leadership.
When we asked if he was talking about Robert King, Mr Smith said, “I am going to have him be the one that tries to heal that, because he has to walk back into our room knowing that, after the last 48 hours, he did those things.”
“My caucus members did not appreciate that behavior.”
Nine OBA MPs delivered a no confidence vote against then-leader Robert King yesterday, prompting Governor Andrew Murdoch to remove him as the constitutional Leader of the Opposition.
Tonight, the OBA Caucus endorsed the action by MPs. Out of 34 votes, 24 agreed with the no confidence motion, 9 were against, and 1 spoiled their ballot.
Speaking to Robert King today ahead of the Caucus meeting, he said it’s a mystery to him why his parliamentary colleagues have sought to dethrone him.
He cited some tension over an interview he gave to Bermuda Broadcasting during his leadership campaign, along with decisions he made and subsequently changed in his first 30 days as OBA Leader.
However, from that time until Wednesday of this week, he says he cannot identify what would meet the test for a vote of no confidence.
He added that the party had brought in a professional to help move them forward following his election.
Consultations were apparently held with MPs between the end of last year and January. However, Mr King said there had not been any subsequent feedback session, and he doesn’t know what the findings were.
When we asked new leader Ben Smith about those consultation sessions, and if they had made their move against Robert King before the findings of those sessions were shared, Mr Smith simply said that “the trust of the MPs had been broken”.
“Because that trust had been broken, a decision had to be made. Once that happened, that information was then presented to our Caucus, and our Caucus made the decision they made tonight.”
WATCH the highlights above. The full press conference announcing Ben Smith as OBA Leader is HERE.
