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The new Policy & Resources President secured three of his four picks to form Guernsey’s top political team today, bringing an end to hours of parliamentary debate.
Deputy Lyndon Trott will be joined by Deputies Jonathan Le Tocq, Bob Murray, John Gollop and Heidi Soulsby for the next 18-months.
The first two were sacked from the committee just yesterday following the vote of no confidence, but they secured the most votes in a secret ballot of deputies and had been nominated by Deputy Trott himself.
He also got his wish for Deputy Soulsby to return to P&R, and it’s expected she will take on the role of Vice-President - a role she held since the start of the term before resigning in late 2022 due to her opposition to the former committee’s tax proposals.
But his final preference, Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, received the lowest number of votes out of eight candidates, with Deputy John Gollop instead being elected having been nominated from the floor by the former P&R President, Deputy Peter Ferbrache.
Deputies Gavin St Pier, Simon Vermeulen, and Charles Parkinson were also nominated from the floor but each failed to gain enough votes.
Hours considering whether the former committee had the confidence of the States are over, and yet more hours electing new members have also come to an end.
Now the proper business of the government must resume.
The new P&R will meet tonight to discuss how to approach the final day of the final States meeting of the year. It also needs to pick who will do which jobs inside the committee, from leading the treasury department, to foreign affairs.
On the to-do list for tomorrow is a huge policy letter, crafted by the previous leadership, on the States’ priorities for the final 18-months. They also have some pieces of legislation on financial crime which have to be put through before the end of the year.
Whether they want to proceed or change any or all of those is another question, which will be revealed first thing tomorrow.
Pictured: The new-look Policy & Resources Committee.
Deputy Trott said he was “genuinely and pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest” in the vacancies, with 15 approaches to him made.
He promised to build the “most diversified team” and acknowledged that conversations since yesterday had been frank but friendly.
Despite the States not agreeing with one of his preferences, he assured he could work “with any member of this Assembly, and will”.
In his pitch to the Assembly, he said Deputy Soulsby was experienced inside and out of the States, Deputy Murray was “renowned for hard work and determination”, and Deputy Le Tocq was important for continuity, as well as having “deep and sustained experience” in the top committee for nearly 12 years.
Deputy Le Tocq, who received the most votes of any candidate (21), described himself as committed to public service and hopes he has proven his ability to work with anyone. He warned threats internationally were piling up and cannot be ignored.
It’s widely expected he will resume his role as the external relations lead for the Bailiwick.
Deputy Murray is also expected to pick up where he left off leading the Government Work Plan and digital transformation work, something he said he has made a “reasonable contribution to”, and also called for pragmatism and “healing”. He got 18 votes.
Deputy Soulsby, who secured 16 votes, said she didn’t stand for the job again lightly, but focused on the major domestic and international challenges facing the island.
And Deputy Gollop also won a seat with 17 votes. He said he wasn’t partisan, and has a unique position as someone with autism and other conditions to work with and understand people from across the system. He promised to be a “strong team player”.
His proposer, Deputy Ferbrache, said he initially thought of him as a “one term politician” back in 1997.
“How wrong was I,” he said. Not only can Deputy Gollop take the public with him, he’s a deep thinker, it was added.
Back to the future? Trott returns to the top
Policy & Resources Committee sacked by the States
EXPLAINED: So... who is Lyndon Trott?
◆ LIVE UPDATES: States Debate – Debating a new P&R
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