BILL Henderson MHK has been sacked from his role in the Treasury.
Treasury Minister Eddie Teare MHK says he can’t work with the North Douglas member any more.
The dispute came over Mr Henderson’s stance on tuition fees.
The Council of Ministers yesterday agreed to Mr Teare’s request to remove Mr Henderson from his department and the government made the announcement that he’d been sacked at lunchtime today.
Mr Teare said: ‘Treasury is a department with a special role and special responsibilities. For us to function effectively on behalf of the public there has to be mutual confidence within the Treasury team, and there can be no breach of trust between a minister and his political members.
‘I am sorry to say that as minister I no longer have confidence and trust in Mr Henderson as a member of Treasury and I cannot continue to work with him.
‘For the sake of the coherence of the department I have had no alternative but to recommend that his membership be terminated.’
The minister added: ‘I believe this is the responsible thing to do, but I am personally saddened by this situation.
‘I valued Mr Henderson’s contribution to Treasury in the past and enjoyed working with him.’
Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK said: ‘Treasury is arguably the most important department in government and its members receive extra remuneration in recognition of its special status. Its work to secure the island’s financial future is certainly too important to be undermined by a breakdown in trust within the team, and the Council of Ministers has recognised this point.’
Mr Henderson does not have another departmental job in government.
Bill Henderson said that he had a ‘pre-declared position and public commitment to the continued funding of tuition fees’.
He said: ‘This sends a clear message to all members of Tynwald – “Do what you are told, you are not free to express yourselves and if you do you will pay for it.”
‘Unlike Mr Crookall [the MHK for Peel, who’s the Minister of Education], I was elected on points of principle laid out in my manifesto, preceding manifestos and, unlike Mr Crookall, I stand by the pledges made which I was elected upon. My constituents where good enough to believe in me, vote for me and give me a position in parliament and the last thing I intend to do is turn my back on their trust and dump on them.
‘That is the real reason for my dismissal.’
He added: ‘Further, I fully understand circumstances can change and it is over a year since the general election, and I know the cost of fully funding the students awards.
‘However, this is no justification as to why I should betray the people who put me here, and the public in general.
‘It is my firm belief that there is much more government can achieve by way of savings, reducing its size and delivering its services in different ways. We are not at the point yet where the public, and especially our young people, their futures and their families, should be made to suffer as an easy savings target,’
He continued: ‘Student awards is easy prey to pick off. It involves no great degree of change, thinking or effort from Mr Crookall to inflict this reckless, damaging and negligent change on our young people and their families.
‘As far as I am concerned the Council of Ministers are deliberately avoiding their responsibilities by failing to set national priorities – what is it they wish to support and protect for the island as far as possible thus enabling a balanced, measured approach to budgetary planning?
‘Not the piecemeal approach we are witnessing currently. There has to be an overarching, consistant, cross-governmental and uniform approach.
‘In turn this would give Treasury and all government departments a clear steer as to what is expected and required of them.’
Mr Henderson added: ‘I also include here a suspicion that some of our own businesses and individuals are not paying the correct amounts of tax that they should be or what is being claimed as expenses for tax relief – together estimated to run into huge figures.
‘I fully realise that we have to re-balance the national budget and we will have to go through a fair degree of pain to achieve that. Again, it has to be on a prioritised, planned and consistant approach with total honesty and transparency. When that has been achieved, and if still necessary, only then can we begin to think about increased or new charges passed on to the community,’ Mr Henderson said.
‘It is completely disingenuous for the Council of Ministers to take the public for granted and treat our citizens with contempt – expecting a “quiet acquiescence” to some of its current, disjointed damaging and uninspiring savings tactics.
‘Nor is it acceptable to use Tynwald as the “CoMin Rubber Stamp” for ill-conceived plans and use Tynwald Members as the ‘CoMin scape goats’ and excuse when things go wrong. I’m not running away from my responsibilities, as some ministers have inferred. Far from it and my public record speaks for its self on important national issues.’
More on this story in Monday’s Examiner