Jun 30 – Government Questions Whether GSD Chairman Trevor Hammond Is A Liar Or Just A Fall Guy?
The Government of Gibraltar has called on the Chairman of the Gibraltar Social Democrats, Trevor Hammond, to clarify whether, at the time that he presented the Lloyd's Register Report to the public on 10th June, he knew that it was the Spark Group of Companies that had commissioned it.
On the video of the presentation of the Lloyd’s Register Report, Mr Hammond is shown saying and echoing Daniel Feetham’s words, that the public should contrast the report presented by the GSD “with the reports that will be produced by Government, which will effectively be produced by commercial interests who have a vested interest in ensuring this project goes ahead because they will get an awful lot of money”.
In fact, as the Government has now established, it was actually the Lloyd’s Register Report presented by Mr Hammond for the GSD that had been commissioned by commercial interests who had actually sought to pursue the business of LNG supply but had been unsuccessful in doing so.
The Government, therefore, now calls on Mr Hammond to make a statement on whether, either:
. a) he was aware when he was presenting the Lloyd’s Register Report that it had been commissioned by Spark (a commercial interest with some vested interest in LNG supply and the continuation of the diesel burning business), and he was therefore intentionally deceptive in his presentation of the Report; or
. b) he presented the Lloyd's Register Report as he did, without knowing it had been commissioned by Spark, having been set-up by Mr Feetham for the purpose, demonstrating a remarkable failure of trust between the GSD Leader and its Chairman.
Either way, the Government considers that Mr Hammond's political reputation will be irrevocably tainted and his political credibility entirely destroyed by the either intentionally deceptive or naively ill-informed position on the presentation of the Lloyd’s Register Report on which he purported to lead.
The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC, said: “Trevor Hammond needs to come clean now on what he knew when he said at the presentation of the Lloyd’s Register Report, that it was not in any way a Report prepared for a commercial operator.
“He needs to tell the Gibraltarian public whether he was intentionally deceiving them or just put up to it by Daniel Feetham, the details of which he was not aware of, despite being the Chairman of the GSD.
“Mr Hammond needs to tell the Gibraltarian people whether he is a liar who has been caught or a fall-guy for Daniel Feetham. It's either one or the other. Either way, he is politically seriously compromised having been caught out as he has been.
“What is now abundantly clear is that Mr Feetham in particular has been caught out, because he appears to have said the same thing as Mr Hammond, although it is clear that Mr Feetham knew the Report had been prepared by a commercial entity with a vested interest. But the public are used to deceptions from Mr Feetham and don't need me to alert them to such lies, whether inside or outside the House.”
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