Marc Leadbeater, who will ask for his requete to be withdrawn at tomorrow’s States meeting, claimed that Robert Curgenven was pulling the strings of a campaign of vilification against him.
‘Over the last few months, there has been a sustained and escalating campaign of unfounded allegations directed at me, the Home Affairs Committee and those working under the mandate of the committee,’ said Deputy Leadbeater, the president of Home Affairs, in an email to States members yesterday confirming his move as revealed in yesterday’s Guernsey Press.
‘This has now extended into public commentary about me personally which questions both my credibility and my motives for bringing this requete.
‘Given the nature and volume of these claims, which appear to be driven, facilitated and often endorsed by Deputy Curgenven online, there is a very real risk that Wednesday’s debate would be overshadowed and undermined.
‘In truth, based on what is currently circulating, that risk has now become a near certainty.’
Deputy Curgenven declined to respond yesterday.
Following discussion with the six other signatories of his requete and senior deputies, Deputy Leadbeater said he was left with ‘no responsible option’ but to lay a motion to withdraw and re-present the requete at a later date.
In the meantime, Deputy Leadbeater hopes that a code of conduct investigation will clear him of accusations of dishonesty about his and his family’s links to cannabis companies, which Deputy Curgenven recently submitted to interim standards commissioner Andrew Ozanne.
The requete recommends setting up a working party of deputies who would have until the end of next year to devise a model for cannabis to be legalised and regulated locally.
The deputies behind the requete, published early last month, believe the island’s current cannabis regime unnecessarily damages users’ prospects later in life and prevents the States properly regulating the drug and earning money from its sale. There are also concerns about thousands of prescriptions for medicinal cannabis ending up in the wrong hands.
‘It is deeply frustrating that progress on an important policy area has been impeded in this way, particularly given that there are thousands of members of our community and many States members who have been really looking forward to and patiently waiting for this debate,’ he said in his email to his colleagues.
‘Personally, after 10 years of campaigning for reform in this area, to be forced into withdrawing this requete is absolutely deflating.’
Deputy Curgenven’s code of conduct complaint claims that Deputy Leadbeater was not open, transparent or honest in an interview with the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast, during which he denied that close family members had a financial interest in the cannabis industry despite his sister and parents having small shareholdings in the parent company of Bailiwick Botanicals, which sells hardware to users of medicinal cannabis, and his parents having a minor stake in House of Green, which was previously active in cannabis processing but is now said to be a dormant company.
Deputy Leadbeater has insisted that the firms are not in the cannabis industry, denied providing misleading answers during his interview and vowed to launch a vigorous defence to clear his name.