The Barbados opposition leader says he has no regrets about crossing the floor of Parliament 13 months ago and leaving the ruling Barbados Labour Party.However, he claimed to have been unprepared for the level of assault he endured after he delivered his first Budget Reply shortly after assuming the leadership of the Opposition Democratic Labour Party.“I could not believe it. I stood up in this Parliament and spoke as leader of the opposition and it was not vanity that returned me to the recording. I wanted to be certain that I was cordial and polite and friendly…and I was unprepared for the assault on the night after the reply.”His comments came in the 2025 Budget Reply which he delivered on Tuesday evening in the House of Assembly when he took the opportunity to revisit the first experience but noted he is serving with a sense of honour and duty.“I was met with that violence. It wasn’t physical, it was verbal,” he added, referring to the character attacks. “Some of the most dangerous untruths,” he further recalled.According to him, since the last Budget Reply he has encountered an intolerance to criticism in the ruling party which he maintains does not intimidate him.
