‘I cannot support stealing money from our grandparents’
A DISGRUNTLED Liam McKenna has quit the Guernsey Party, saying he had to resume his independence because he could not support proposed tax reforms and cost-cutting which amounted to ‘taking away our pensions, stealing our money and stealing our grandparents’ money’.
Deputy McKenna was elected for the first time at last year’s general election after standing as an independent candidate.
He joined the Guernsey Party in November because he shared the same outlook and objectives as its six elected members.
Party leader Mark Helyar said at the time that their views were ‘closely aligned’.
As treasury lead for Policy & Resources, Deputy Helyar will be taking proposals to the States Assembly for the tax reform debate at the end of this month.
However, Deputy McKenna told the Guernsey Press yesterday that he no longer wished to remain associated with the party or its leader.
Instead, he now prefers to pursue uniting States members by stating his case as an independent.
‘With the biggest and greatest tax review that’s coming up in our history, I will be voting against GST,’ he said.
‘I’ll be voting against tax increases. I’m voting against taking away our pensions, stealing our money, stealing our grandparents’ money, our parents, our family and friends’ money.
‘I cannot support this in any conceivable way because it is not the States of Guernsey’s money – it is our money and if the States have robbed the bank then we should sell off the properties they bought with it and put the money back in the pension pot.’
Deputy McKenna said he would be prioritising the needs – which he felt were badly under-served – of full-time carers in Guernsey.
‘I will be coming back strongly on the carers’ allowance,’ he said.‘At the moment they’re offered £89 a week if you look after your loved one for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but if you don’t want to look after them, the States will give you £4,000 pounds a month towards the care home and you’re using up one of the beds that they’re saying are full.’
He said he wanted to support community nurses with better pay for them and for carers.
‘The carers are already saving the States of Guernsey £29m. a year. By paying the community nurses more, we’ll free up the beds in the care homes for people who don’t need full time care.’
Deputy McKenna also highlighted costs incurred to taxpayers through supporting the loss-making States’-owned airline Aurigny, saying the projected deficit amounted to about £4,000 per person on the island.
‘If you said to a pensionable couple “There’s a cheque for £8,000” or if you say to a family of four “There’s a cheque for £16,000’... I want to take the fight to the States and say “Cut spending, cut government costs, grow the economy”.
‘I hope that everybody will support me in the whole party of the States. I no longer want us to be known as the divided States. I want to be a united States.’
. A statement from the Guernsey Party, issued yesterday, said Deputy McKenna was leaving ‘with the very best wishes of the party’.
