The Premier whose visit to the UK was to discuss their loan guarantee offer for the BVI’s hurricane recovery, among other things, said the Opposition never mentioned having any concerns prior to his departure.

“The Opposition never raised their voice, they never said ‘well, alright let us discuss’. As soon as we get up in the plane they started – which is their democratic right, might I add – holding public meetings and they throwing a punch while we were out of the ring,” Premier Fahie said.

“Well, I am back in the ring. I’m back here so they can throw the punch now that I am back in the ring because we know we’re going to answer based on facts.”

Opposition trying to destabilize us!

Premier Fahie said the move by the Opposition was an attempt to destabilize his fledgeling administration.

“We understand what the Opposition is trying to do. They are trying to create an environment that they are trying to make people think that the country is destabilized for their own selfish gains,” Fahie said.

He added: “While they are doing that, they are trying to make sure that they speak to any entity that they feel they can team up with to try to dethrone the government, for their own selfish reasons. I understand clearly what’s happening. I am in politics for quite a while.”

The territory’s leader said he believes the Opposition was also hoping that their UK trip was unsuccessful.

 “This the same country they love, but they were hoping that we got nothing done and we’re going to come back and talk, talk, talk and nothing happen,” Premier Fahie said.

Opposition’s meeting was to discuss serious concerns

In the meantime, the meeting held by the Opposition across Tortola and on Virgin Gorda was to address issues such as the relationship between the BVI and the UK as well as the Recovery & Development Agency.

Opposition Leader Marlon Penn said that the move to host the meetings is not about the Opposition going after the government, but to simply ensure that there is transparency.

“We are very concerned, and we believe the public needs to get all the information. There is a lot of half information and cherry-picking that is happening with the dialogues, and we need to be able to put everything on the table so persons can be able to make informed decisions on these matters as they come up,” Penn said at the time.

“We are having the meetings to have an open dialogue on our issues of the loan guarantee, the RDA and we have a serious concern right now in terms of the discourse that is happening between the UK and the Virgin Islands and our relationships. We are concerned that this has some implications for relationships with the United Kingdom,” he added.