No invitation to attend UN Conference was issued to UPP MPs, Opposition Leader Pringle confirms; former PM Spencer was also snubbed

Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle is denying the rumour that he and his
parliamentary colleagues were invited to the United Nations’ fourth Small
Island Developing States conference (SIDS4).

According to a press statement published dated May 29, Pringle says he
received an invitation for himself, his parliamentary colleagues, and their
guests to the Governor-General’s Welcome Reception for the Heads of
Delegation, held on Sunday, May 26.

On his own, he says, he was invited by the prime minister and his wife to a
“dinner in honour of the Heads of State/Government” who are attending the
Conference. That event was held at Sandals Grande Antigua on May 27.
However, he attended neither event.

“I received no other communication, not in person, nor by email, from any
other government office or agency inviting our attendance at, or participation
in, the Conference,” Pringle says in the press release.

“While the expectation of the Party was that the Conference would be hosted
by the Government and People of Antigua and Barbuda, the event has been
treated, instead, like a project of the Cabinet and the Antigua Labour Party – a
distortion that the UPP cannot support,” the statement concludes.

Another Party official says the ultimate disrespect was to former Prime
Minister Baldwin Spencer, who reportedly was not invited even to the
ceremonial or social events surrounding the conference.

However, it was only two weeks ago that Spencer received a call from an
employee in the Prime Minister’s Office, who inquired whether he would be
amenable to giving up his vehicle for use in the Conference’s motor pool.
“This Administration has no class and no sense of what is decent,” the UPP
official says about both the request and the snub of the former head of
government.