‘Puppets’! Vanterpool blasts gov’t ministers then retracts

Fourth District Representative Mark Vanterpool was forced to retract a statement made in the House of Assembly (HOA) yesterday when he branded ministers of the Unity Government as puppets beholden to the United Kingdom (UK) governor.

Vanterpool was at the time making his contribution to the HOA’s debate on the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report.

“Look at my government in front of me. Five members of the Cabinet—puppets!” Vanterpool said.

He continued: “Even though you might not like me saying that but it’s the truth. That’s what you are. I am going to speak the truth. They dare not go against the governor because they know what he [will] do or you know what he can do. So, you better lap your tail, you better lap your tail and snuck up. You know the truth. You better do what he says.”

Vanterpool repeatedly claimed that the government was under a dictatorship, with the governor acting as a dictator.

“People of the Virgin Islands wake up!” Vanterpool urged. “The Virgin Islands is, right now, being run by the governor as a dictator. I’m talking about the governorship, I’m not talking about the individual. He can get upset if he wants to. I don’t have a problem with that but he is operating right now as a dictator.”

At one point, Vanterpool, who previously said he will not be contesting the next elections, equated Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine to the UK’s threat to impose direct rule on the BVI if a framework agreement based on the COI report’s recommendations were not followed.

Vanterpool suggested that just as Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin made up a reason to invade the Ukraine, so too the UK made up a reason from the COI report to threaten the BVI’s status as a self-governing territory.