Deputy Lyndon Trott says he has 'nothing to hide' regarding accusations of discrimination against a fellow politician, who has a family member with disabilities.
He is one of three Guernsey politicians facing formal complaints. The complaints relate to alleged comments about Deputy Marc Leadbeater's ability to carry out his political work - because of his family circumstances.
Education President, Paul Le Pelley, has confirmed he has also recieved notice of a complaint against him but has not made any further comments.
Meanwhile, Deputy Lyndon Trott has released the following statement.
Last evening I received notification that two code of conduct complaints have been made against me by Mr Wayne Bulpitt and Mr Robin Le Prevost. Their complaints concern disability matters and alleged discrimination.
Neither has had any contact with me regarding any of the details pertaining to their complaints and correspondingly neither has chosen to ascertain any facts from me prior to these totally unwarranted vexatious and malevolent complaints, being lodged.
I wish to be unequivocally clear that I have nothing to hide as a result of this complaint, and I will tell the public now, exactly what I will tell the code panel when they ask.
‘I was approached by the President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, who sought my advice on whether the Committee should re-nominate Deputy Leadbeater following his resignation. I was clear in the guidance I offered, which was that if I was in the President’s position, I would not seek to have Deputy Leadbeater back on my Committee for the simple reason that he had chosen to break away from the Committee’s agreed position when he resigned. Committees work best when there is trust and as far as I was concerned Deputy Leadbeater had burnt those political bridges when he publicly distanced himself from his fellow committee members.
‘Let me be absolutely clear about this. I was asked for political advice and that is what I offered. Some will no doubt agree with my stance while others will disagree, such is the nature of politics, but at no point did Deputy Leadbeater’s personal circumstances either enter into our conversation or my mind. In fact, I had no idea of Deputy Leadbeater’s family circumstances until I read about them in the Guernsey Press! I take great exception to an accusation that I would behave in a discriminatory manner
‘If I am found by the code panel, in any way, to have behaved without integrity then I will step down from the Policy & Resources Committee with immediate effect. In the interim I will, at my own instigation, play no part in the business of P&R and will accordingly accept no compensation. However, those who have made these baseless accusations about me, and which they have not asked me about, are also members of Policy & Resources Committee-sponsored bodies such as the Children’s Executive, the Social Policy Partnership Forum and the Third Sector Development Group. I expect them to resign from their roles on those bodies if their integrity is shown to have been compromised by making these accusations about me in this way.’
There will be many that will now wish a full public inquiry into this matter and such requests will not be without merit. Should such an inquiry materialise, I look forward to participating in a full and proper manner.
