Guernsey Party loses Helyar

Thursday 03 November 2022

Deputy Mark Helyar has left the Guernsey Party citing both political and personal reasons for doing so.

As the Treasury lead on the Committee for Policy and Resources he has been at the forefront of political activity this week, presenting the 2023 Budget to the States. It was approved, with a small number of amendments yesterday.

Pictured: Deputy Helyar announced his decision via Facebook.

Deputy Helyar has said that this work on the States finances and the upcoming tax review has kept him so busy that he is unable to commit the time needed to his duties as a member of the Guernsey Party. 

Originally he was the Chairman and Leader of the Guernsey Party when it was launched ahead of the 2020 island wide election. Six candidates were voted into the States, just four of them remain within the Party following today's resignation by Deputy Helyar. 

He had already stood down as Chairman and Leader of the Party shortly after the October 2020 election, but retained his position of Parliamentary Leader until today.

Deputy Helyar has now withdrawn from the Party entirely, explaining his decision in a statement shared via Facebook early this morning.

He said he had told the Guernsey Party of his decision to withdraw from the group "for the foreseeable future".

Deputy Helyar said there are several reasons for his decision, "some of them political and some personal", with the most prominent reason appearing to be his position on P&R and his role as the Treasury Lead in particular. 

"The first is about the time available to fulfill a very busy role on the Policy & Resources Committee and contribute to Party matters, where my lack of availability has made Party meetings sporadic and often poorly timed," he said.

"The second is that my role as treasury lead is oftenincompatible with following a party position. This has been rightly identified as a paradox in the media on several occasions. It also means that I am very often unable to express my personal views because of the need to provide clear and unambiguous leadership from P&R, even when I may not have personally agreed with a particular position."

 

Pictured: The Guernsey Party's vision (above) is published on its website.

Deputy Helyar's personal reasons for withdrawing from the Guernsey Party centre on an operation he is having later this month which will affect his ability to commit to the Party on top of his other political work for P&R.

Through his Facebook statement he said: 

"Amongst other reasons, I will be undergoing complex surgery on my knee in late November and this will mean that I will be unable to attend the States’ meeting commencing on the 23rd.

"I will be out of action for at least a few weeks and have 6 months of rehabilitation after that. This will inevitably impact on my available time and I need to ensure I am able to dedicate myself fully to the most essential tasks as treasury lead, in these extremely challenging times." 

Pictured: Deputy Helyar still featured on the Guernsey Party website this morning.

Since its inception, and the first island wide election in 2020, the Guernsey Party has gained and lost members.

It fielded nine candidates for the election, including Rick Lowe who later withdrew his candidacy due to ill health. 

Of the six candidates elected to the States, only four remain members of the party. 

Deputy Simon Vermeulen, Deputy Nick Moakes, Deputy Bob Murray and Deputy John Dyke are all parliamentary members of the Guernsey Party.

Deputy Chris Le Tissier left the Party after the scandal over his Twitter trolling.

Deputy Liam McKenna briefly joined the Guernsey Party after being elected as an independent before resigning from the Party.

Deputy Helyar said, via his Facebook post, that he may rejoin the Guernsey Party and he remains proud of what it has achieved so far.

"Political life is of course robust and subject to sudden change," he said.

"I was a founder member of the Guernsey Party and we have achieved real change in a very short period. We have always been open about our political views and objectives and achieving them in a group of 5 amongst 40 is not easy.

"I don’t rule out rejoining the party in the event of changed circumstances or prior to the next election and I wish remaining members all the best. We will continue to communicate, cooperate and do our best to achieve the objectives our significant numbers of supporters want to see."

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