PNP: George Wright’s return to JLP a ‘sad period for Jamaica’

The Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) reinstatement of embattled Central Westmoreland MP George Wright has sparked strong criticism from the People's National Party (PNP), with PNP Women's Movement President Patricia Duncan Sutherland calling it a “sad period for Jamaica.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, PNP female officials condemned the decision, citing concerns over leadership and accountability.

"The act of this government of bringing back George Wright and saying that they are going to put him forward again as a candidate... for the next general election, is psychological and emotional abuse on every woman that has experienced domestic violence in this country," Duncan Sutherland said.

Wright resigned from the JLP in June 2021, days after a video surfaced online allegedly showing a man, believed to be him, beating a woman with his fists and a stool.

While the man was widely believed to be Wright, neither he nor his common-law wife at the time, Tannisha Singh, would confirm. The couple eventually got married.

The JLP stated on Sunday that Wright's application on Sunday to rejoin the JLP was accepted after considering "the circumstances which led to his independent status, along with the mitigating actions he has since taken to be re-admitted" to the party.

Those circumstances, along with the mitigating actions, were not disclosed by the JLP.

Dressed in black, Duncan Sutherland said she represented the 30 per cent of Jamaican women who have experienced domestic violence.

She claimed that the allegations against Wright remain "unresolved".

She elaborated: "George Wright has not denied that he was the man in the video, and if they are to say that mitigating circumstances are the reasons why they are accepting him once again to be a part of the JLP and the government caucus, then they need to tell the public what those mitigating circumstances are."

Duncan Sutherland said Wright needs to go a step further and say: "This act was not a good act, (and) it's a wrong act".

For her part, PNP Chairman, Angela Brown Burke slammed the JLP for its decision to return Wright as one of its parliamentarians following almost four years of silence on the issue.

"This move of bringing George Wright as a current Member of Parliament for the Jamaica Labour Party, after four years of silence, is a slap in the face of all women and girls," she claimed.

"It is another punch to the gut for every survivor of domestic violence and, in particular, those who are survivors of intimate partner violence. It is a devastating blow to our young girls who are hoping that they won't become part of the statistics that 30 per cent of women in Jamaica... experience gender-based violence," Brown Burke added.

She called on Wright to issue a public apology, given that mitigating circumstances influenced his return to the JLP.