Earlier, during the afternoon, a spokesman for the States Members’ Conduct Panel had confirmed that “two complaints asserting that a Member of the States has broken the States’ Members’ Code of Conduct have been received by this office.”
The spokesman explained:
“One is against Deputy Brehaut and asserts that he breached clauses 8 (Members shall at all times conduct themselves in a manner which will tend to maintain and strengthen the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of the States of Deliberation …) and clause 9 (Members shall at all times treat other Members … with respect and courtesy and without malice, …) in a Twitter exchange on 9 February by what he said about the three school campaign and in particular Deputy Carl Meerveld.”
The spokesman continued:
“The other is against Deputy Soulsby and asserts that she breached clauses 8 (Members shall at all times conduct themselves in a manner which will tend to maintain and strengthen the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of the States of Deliberation …) and clause 9 (Members shall at all times treat other Members … with respect and courtesy and without malice, …) in a Twitter exchange on 4 February by what she said about Deputy Gollop.”
The spokesman explained that both complaints will now “be considered in accordance with the terms of the Code of Conduct.”
Pictured: Deputy Barry Brehaut
In response, Deputy Brehaut, the President of the Committee for the Environment and Infrastructure, told Express:
“I understand a member of the public has taken issue with me referring to a ‘Guerilla’ marketing campaign led by the former Vice President of ESC, Deputy Carl Meerveld, as unethical, I stand by those remarks, it was unethical.
“The public must have confidence in all communications emanating from the States of Guernsey. It was simply wrong to give the impression a site potentially funded by the tax payer was a community led project, rather than a covert campaign initiated by members of ESC.
“This is a vexatious complaint that I hope the Code of Conduct panel will deal with swiftly.”
Pictured: Deputy Heidi Soulsby
When asked for a response, Deputy Soulsby, the President of the Committee for Health and Social Care, told Express:
“This is nothing more than a vexatious attack on my integrity. That light hearted comments should have been twisted and used to attack me is a damning indictment of both social media and the current state of Guernsey politics.
“The level of personal abuse I have received on social media is beyond anything I have ever encountered before and were I to have posted any of those comments then a Code of Conduct would have been valid. I did not and I would not, as anyone who knows me would testify.
“I will not comment further until the Panel have reached their decision.”