Warmington hails George Wright as model MP

WESTERN BUREAU:

Everald Warmington is urging the country’s parliamentarians to adopt the approach being taken by independent Westmoreland Central Member of Parliament (MP) George Wright to the management of their constituencies.

Wright, who was elected in 2020 on a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ticket, resigned from the ruling party after finding himself in a whirlwind of controversy after a video of a man physically assaulting a woman was widely circulated.

Wright did not admit to being the man in the video and the police closed an investigation into the matter after saying the identities of the persons were inconclusive, despite Wright and a female companion filing reports of assault against each other. Amid the firestorm, the parties also indicated that they no longer wished to press charges.

But, speaking at a ceremony to mark the reopening of the Retrieve to Marchmont road in the neighbouring Westmoreland Eastern, which was rehabilitated at a cost of J$75 million, Warmington said Wright was doing a great job in representing his constituents.

“Where MP George Wright is concerned, sometimes he comes as an antagonist. Sometimes he pressures you. He becomes disgusting, he never leaves you out, and I wish the other MPs, particularly in Westmoreland, would advocate like him,” said Warmington, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Wright is known in his constituency as a relentless advocate for infrastructural repairs, especially as it relates to roads that have fallen into disrepair.

Among projects already completed are the $60-million Gooden River to Glasgow road; the Welcome road network, done at a cost of $43 million; and the Shrewsbury to Logwood road, rehabilitated for $27.7 million.

Ongoing projects include the $322-million Whithorn to Darliston road, a section of which is in Westmoreland Eastern, and the $30.1 million construction of a new bridge to replace the old Gully Bridge in Logwood.

“ ... He is fighting for his people, and he never ease up until you say, ‘Yes, I am going to do the project’,” Warmington said at the event earlier this week.

Wright; Westmoreland Western MP, Morland Wilson; and Daniel Lawrence, MP for Westmoreland Eastern, ended 31 years of dominance by the opposition People’s National Party in the parish when they swept all three seats for the JLP in the 2020 general election.

Last month, JLP Deputy Leader J.C. Hutchinson told party faithfuls at a meeting in St Elizabeth that Wright – whom he described as “the independent Labourite, who everybody knows that he has taken a short leave from the Labour Party” – was poised to return to the JLP.

However, the JLP secretariat has said that Wright had not made any request to be reinstated and that the party had not approached him to do so.

“We have not approached him. I don’t know where J.C. got this thing from. The man does not apply to join the party; we don’t engage him. It’s not a thought,” said JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com