Jersey's Chief Minister survives no confidence vote

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Jersey Senator John Le Fondré has held onto the island's top political role after surviving a vote of no confidence.

19 States Members voted in favour of ousting the Chief Minister, and 29 voted against.

Following the vote, the States of Jersey will meet next Tuesday (17 November), and Senator Le Fondre will be invited to nominate a States Member to become Minister for Children and Housing, replacing Senator Sam Mézec, one of three Reform Jersey party members who stepped down to support the no confidence bid.

The vote of no confidence proposal was brought forward in the wake of the bitter row over Chief Executive Charlie Parker’s second job at UK real estate firm New River, for which the Chief Minister gave verbal permission.

All of this could have been avoided if the Chief Minister had simply said "oh right, let me float that with some of my colleagues before agreeing" when first asked about the second job.

— Senator Sam Mézec (@SamMezecJsy) November 9, 2020

Senator Kristina Moore opened debate by emphasising: “This is not personal, this is about principles, values and performance.”

She went on to accuse Senator Le Fondré of “allowing a culture of bullying” to sweep throughout the public service and said he had lost the support of the public during the pandemic.

Fighting for his future, the Chief Minister warned States Members that a “vote of no confidence is an extremely serious matter at any time, but especially in the middle of a pandemic", before taking the States Assembly through the ‘wins’ of his term so far.

He admitted making “genuine mistakes” in the absence of having “full information to hand”, but questioned: “Have I really made such a large number of mistakes I haven’t tried to rectify?”

Senator Le Fondré concluded by emphasising that removing a Chief Minister in the middle of a pandemic, with Brexit looming, would be "swapping one crisis for another."