Sep 23 - Contact With Senior Civil Servants Established In The Run Up To Election
The Chief Minister has asked the Chief Secretary, Mr Ernest Gomez, to contact the Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham in order to facilitate contact with senior civil servants in the run up to the General Election.
Such contact is permitted by convention in the United Kingdom in the months before a General Election is due. The Government says that the GSD denied Mr Picardo such contact when the GSLP / Liberals were in Opposition. Mr Picardo then committed himself to allow such contact if he became Chief Minister and is now acting on that commitment.
The Chief Minister said: "I have changed many things about the way the Government deals with the Opposition. This is just one of them. I have also ensured that Opposition Members of Parliament have been invited to Government functions, something the GSD had in many instances stopped doing. Another thing I do is invite the Leader of the Opposition to the events of Gibraltar day in London. So now I am going further in establishing better democratic rules for the functioning of party politics in Gibraltar by allowing the operation of this convention based on the UK Westminster model. This means that communication by the Opposition with senior civil servants on their proposed policies can now happen, as set out in our manifesto."
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