Attorney Michael Lashley, one of the most notable faces of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), has resigned from the organisation, two days after making a surprise appearance at the Annual Conference of the rival Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
“I am not a member of any party,” he said yesterday when pressed on whether he had joined the ruling BLP based on his attendance last Saturday at the conference in Queen’s Park, The City, where he was warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and other party faithful.
Lashley, who contested five general elections, winning three and losing the last two of 2018 and 2022, sent in his two-line letter of resignation yesterday evening addressed to general secretary Pedro Shepherd.
Dated October 27, it stated: “This letter is to inform you of my resignation from the Democratic Labour Party with immediate effect.”
Lashley held portfolios of Minister of Housing and Lands, and Minister of Transport and Works during the DLP’s two terms in office (2008-2018) before losing his St Philip North seat in 2018 and 2022 when the party was twice wiped out 30-0.
As to his reason for leaving the 70-year-old party, he said it was a combination factors, including that he did not like the direction in which the party was headed, and attacks on his relatives.
“Attack me, I can take it but don’t attack my sister. I come from a close-knit family,” the King’s Counsel told the DAILY NATION, adding that he was concentrating on establishing an office in St Lucia and taking on other legal cases in the region.
He said the work of his newly-formed foundation would also take up some of his time.
Lashley is the latest politician to depart from the DLP and some of those have gone on to form organisations, including the Friends of Democracy.
Meantime, Dr Sonia Browne, who in 2018 put an end to Lashley’s winning streak of three election victories, said she intended to still be the BLP candidate in
the next election for St Philip North.
“As far as history and I am concerned, the incumbent, unless he or she steps back, they contest the following election. As far as I know, I don’t think he has joined the party as yet. Nobody has told me he has joined but I am living as I always lived. I’m expecting to be a part of the next elections.”
Browne admitted to being unaware that he was attending the conference, but also said she was not a part of the top brass of the BLP.
“I attended like all the other MPs and everybody else and then I saw him come in to pomp and pageantry. That is as much as I know about it,” she said.
Browne, a medical doctor, stressed that she was not a person easily intimidated and certainly not by the presence of Lashley.
“People who know me know that I’m not easily intimidated. Tthat’s just not in my personality. I deal with things as they come and how best I could. I’m not one to be stomped on,” she said.
She maintained that if his attendance was meant to do that, it did not.
“I know his family so I don’t see it as intimidation, not in the least. I don’t know if that was the intention,” Browne said.
Lashley did not immediately comment on why he attended the conference. (AC)
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