Premier Wheatley made the statement at a recent press conference after a member of the press asked how he plans to prevent several past errors that he apologised for on the campaign trail.

“All I can say is that the four years which have passed were very much a learning experience, very instructive. Just about anything that could have happened did happen,” the Premier admitted. “That institutional knowledge that I now have will be brought to bear in the position I am in now to give the people better leadership and governance.”

During the lead-up to the election, Premier Wheatley was asked to account for certain decisions like the Greedy Bill, which he supported during his first term. Instead of deflecting, he admitted that he erred in supporting that move and others like it which the public didn’t agree with.

The leader said he is confident many of the mistakes of the past four years won’t be repeated.

“We’ve learned a lot from what happened in the past four years and if I could go back and do things differently, I would. But I can’t go back so the only thing I can do is move forward in a way that I believe is right. Based on those experiences, I have a great deal of confidence that a lot of those mistakes we won’t repeat,” Premier Wheatley explained.

Amid the negative spotlight that politics has brought to the BVI in recent years, many believe the public is losing hope in politics and local leaders. This is believed to be the cause of the low voter turnout for the 2023 elections when compared to the last elections held in 2019.