Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Barbados PM who broke with Queen hopes for election boost

Barbados PM who broke with Queen hopes for election boost

Pollsters predict comfortable win for Mia Mottley, but she faces criticism of running a ‘one-party state’
She wowed Cop26 by castigating dithering global leaders for inflicting a “death sentence” on island nations and then made headlines around the world when she ditched the Queen as head of state, installing the singer Rihanna as an official national hero.

On Wednesday, the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, hopes her soaring international profile will translate into a second term when the country goes to the polls in a snap general election.

Like Rihanna, whose umbrella is now exhibit No 1 in the Museum of Barbados, Mottley is known locally just by her first name. Her Barbados Labour party (BLP), which won all 30 seats in the 2018 election, is running with the slogan: “It’s safer with Mia – stay the course.” Bumper stickers dismiss the opposition with the legend: “Dem rest ain’t ready.”

Posters of the 56-year-old are on palm trees and lampposts across Barbados, declaring the smiling incumbent “strong and caring”.

She called the election on 27 December, more than a year earlier than necessary. Her opponents accuse her of disenfranchising more than 5,500 Bajans who are in Covid-19 quarantine and will be unable to vote as the Omicron variant sweeps Barbados.

On Monday night, Mottley embarked on a tour of the island, which has a population of 287,000.

Arriving at a basketball court in Gall Hill in the eastern parish of St John, she danced to her dancehall campaign song Mia Encore and launched into a speech that concentrated on hyperlocal issues: craterous potholes that make driving in the east “like a Disneyland ride” and the upgrading of pit toilets – open latrines still common in some parts of an island famed as a playground for the rich and famous.

Other campaign pledges include building 10,000 homes and developing a Barbadian wealth fund to give Bajans cash from government assets and land.

Wearing gold hoop earrings and a red “Safer With Mia” branded jacket, she then rushed off to Carrington Village in St Michael on the west coast where she went on the defensive about the “fake news” briefings in the weekend papers.

Lucille Moe, a former minister who is advising the opposition Democratic Labour party (DLP) after Mottley sacked her last year, called Mottley a dictator in an interview. “She is autocratic and does not allow anyone to have an opposing view or opinion. Everyone must be in the Mia Mottley choir,” said Moe.

Mottley’s administration has also been criticised for accepting investment from the Chinese government, including a US$115m (£84m) loan for road repairs and $210m (£154m) to upgrade the water and sewage system on the south coast.

But she was at pains to tell the loyal crowd in Gall Hill that she wanted wealth to stay in Barbados. “We are not only concentrating on people from overseas,” she said.

Chinese contractors are rebuilding Sam Lord’s Castle, once the island’s landmark hotel. The BLP has pledged to divest its ownership of the site and offer shares in it “as an investment opportunity to ordinary Barbadians and to the credit union movement”.

An MP since she was 28, Mottley is Barbados’s first female prime minster and the eighth since the island declared independence from the UK in 1966.

The DLP, which was in power from 2008 to 2018 before its electoral wipeout, is largely trying to win votes by arguing Barbados needs an opposition.

Its leader, Verla de Peiza, a UK-educated lawyer like Mottley, has spoken out against the “one-party state”. Her manifesto promises a more socially democratic Barbados, “much more than a cosmetic republic”, as well as a rethink of the island’s tourism industry to focus on “heritage tourism, eco-agro tourism, the yachting community and community-based tourism”.

Pollsters predict a comfortable win for the BLP and Mottley, with the party losing a handful of seats to the DLP.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×