He told colleagues and acquaintances on Friday evening that he would be a candidate at June’s general election after nine years out of politics.
He headed both Health and Public Services during his previous single term in the Assembly and, if elected at his first attempt island-wide, he is likely to be a frontrunner to lead one of the States’ major committees.
‘The first thing is that it’s for voters to decide who to elect as deputies and one can’t be presumptuous about that and I know I will have to work hard for every vote,’ said Mr Luxon, speaking to the Guernsey Press yesterday.
‘But if I am elected, I will offer myself for senior roles with responsibility because I think I have the background and experience for that.’
He will stand as an independent candidate.
After leaving the States in 2016, Mr Luxon spent five years as chief executive of Condor Ferries, and has since been a non-executive director and adviser to a range of businesses in Guernsey and Jersey and taken part in public hearings for the States’ Scrutiny Management Committee.
He said he had thought about it for several months before deciding to re-enter politics.
‘I only ever saw my previous time in the States as a four-year thing, but I am interested in politics and in our government locally, I believe in public service, and you could say the call of public service beckons.
‘I have thought an awful lot about how to try and reset how our government works both from the political perspective and also in conjunction with the 5,500 public sector workers.’
He said the next States would face ‘numerous big, big challenges’, not least a shortfall in public finances which is projected to reach tens of millions of pounds annually.
‘We have an unbalanced budget. We’re spending more than we’re bringing in and that’s without providing for the capital investment we need. We have to deal with that. Balancing the budget has to be an absolute priority.’
He would not be drawn on whether the next Assembly should stick with its predecessor’s direction to introduce ‘GST-plus’ from 2027.
In a States debate on tax reform in 2015, he voted against a successful amendment which took GST off the table, although he also suggested that it was not the right time for a major new consumption tax.
Some existing deputies want to put changing the island’s system of government at the centre of their re-election campaigns, but Mr Luxon indicated yesterday that there were bigger priorities.
‘There is nothing perfect about any system of government,’ he said.
‘There are flaws in our system and there are flaws in all the alternatives, whether you look at the UK, the other Crown Dependencies, the USA or wherever.’
Mr Luxon was previously a deputy for the south-east district and said he recognised that running an island-wide election campaign would be a different experience.
‘I respect that our current system of island-wide voting was selected in a referendum. I didn’t vote for that system myself.
‘I didn’t feel it would improve on our previous district-based system and sadly I think the evidence is that it isn’t an improvement.
‘There is an obvious advantage, which is being able to vote for any candidate, but I know very few people who are looking forward to reading 120 manifestos or who welcome that deputies generally feel less accessible now.’
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