Mac hits back at ‘ineffective’ opposition leader

(CNS): McKeeva Bush is threatening to expose politicians that he claims have beaten women, as he berated the opposition leader and accused the women he has allegedly assaulted of exaggerating. After Roy McTaggart’s call for the West Bay MP to be removed from the Public Accounts Committee, Bush said McTaggart was an “ineffective, unreliable” leader who had done nothing for the people.

Bush also claimed that the allegations against him, which now include rape and indecent assault, were “pure exaggerations of situations, and in this last matter is pure unadulterated lies”. He has also suggested that these charges are politically motivated.

The beleaguered veteran politician said McTaggart “was improperly” using his position as chairman of a House committee to play politics because he had been legitimately elected to sit on PAC by members of parliament, including the opposition leader. “I was duly nominated and elected by the House of Parliament to be a member of the Public Accounts Committee with Roy McTaggart as Chairman,” Bush stated in his latest press release posted on social media.

“Members of the opposition including Roy McTaggart were present and supported the motion to elect me to the Public Accounts Committee,” Bush stated. “I accepted the nomination because I’m duty-bound to represent my people. However, Mr McTaggart, via the recent press statement from the Progressives, is creating a misleading narrative. While he questions my appointment to the Public Accounts Committee, it was indeed valid.”

Bush accused the Progressive leader of disingenuously backtracking on decisions made in parliament. “Mr McTaggart and the Progressives that are party to his politics should appreciate that under British Common Law, any person accused of anything… is innocent until in a court of law… is proven guilty.”

In his own statement, McTaggart had made it clear that Bush had that right. However, he questioned whether he should continue sitting on such a high-profile committee until his legal woes have concluded since he is facing two separate sets of criminal charges in relation to sexual offences involving at least three women, and challenged the premier to remove him from PAC.

Bush threatened to expose long-rumoured allegations about other sitting MPs who have reportedly engaged in violence against women and said McTaggart and the Progressives “would therefore do well in keeping their mouths shut”, otherwise he would sue Mr McTaggart.

“If this ingenious game of politics and malicious attempts to influence public opinion against me do not immediately cease, it will be open to me to state publicly the names of the politicians who have actually been involved in beating women time and time again.”

Bush did not say on what grounds he would sue the opposition leader, who has not made any false allegations against him but has called for him to be removed from the committee he chairs until his criminal charges are dealt with.

But Bush said he was an independent member of parliament and McTaggart should not “abuse his position as Chair of our Public Accounts Committee”, adding that after almost 40 years in parliament, he had done much more “for my people” than McTaggart or any of the Progressives. “McTaggart is very much an ineffective leader if the people take him as political premier they will be in a much worsen [sic] situation than today,” he stated.

CNS contacted Premier Wayne Panton last week, asking him if he intends to arrange a vote in parliament to remove Bush from the committee, but our inquiries continue to be ignored. With local MPs likely to be taking a summer break over the course of this month, parliament is not likely to meet again until September.