St Kitts-Nevis MP urges Harris to ‘do the right thing’

An opposition member of parliament in St Kitts and Nevis has agreed Prime Minister Timothy Harris to “do the right thing” and resign over his apparent links to a UK bribery case.

Knows Maynard made the comments during a St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party press conference.

“Do the right thing by the nation and resign. We cannot continue to have this cloud of corruption hovering over our small nation,” he said.

“We must now consolidate and save the image of St Kitts and Nevis.”

A storm has been brewing around Harris since Friday, when a judgment was revealed at London’s High Court in the case of a man accused of bribing high-ranking Caribbean officials.

Peter Virdee was arrested by the UK’s National Crime Agency and is fighting extradition to Germany.

German authorities have transcripts of conversations where Virdee is alleged to have discussed the details of bribes to both the prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis as well as a minister in Antigua and Barbuda.

Asot Michael has already stepped down as Antigua’s trade and investment minister over the scandal. Both Michael and Timothy Harris deny any wrongdoing, as does Peter Virdee. There have been calls for the prime minister to resign, as well as protests against him. Harris released a statement over the weekend, stating that he “emphatically and unequivocally” had no involvement in anything illegal.

He also said the transcript refers to a time before he became prime minister, although it appear they refer to 2016.

The High Court documents do confirm that there is no evidence to suggest that the government contracted PV Energy Ltd, the company at the centre of the allegations.

But Konris Maynard believes this is one scandal too many for the prime minister.

“This government again has made international news surrounding yet another corruption scandal. This follows many other scandals as the stem cell scandal, herpes vaccine scandal, Ren Bio scandal to name a few.”

“What has been made clear is that since taking office, this government led by Dr. Timothy Harris has been consistently surrounded and engrossed in scandals that have only given the country a bad name.

“It is a disgrace and a shame that the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis is mentioned very clearly in a judgement in the Royal Court of Justice in the United Kingdom.”