PETER Phillips was yesterday put in charge of the Government for the first time since he unsuccessfully challenged Portia Simpson Miller for the leadership of the ruling People’s National Party in a bitter contest earlier this year.

Phillips, the security minister, will be in charge of the Government until tomorrow, when the prime minister returns from Miami in the United States, where she is attending the 30th Miami Conference of the Caribbean Basin.

Robert Pickersgill, the housing, water and transport minister, and a confidant of the prime minister, was always the one put in charge of the administration whenever the prime minister was travelling.

Yesterday’s decision to put Phillips in charge could, therefore, be an attempt by the ruling party to show that it is united, as the country draws closer to elections.

Meanwhile, Simpson Miller was last night scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a reception for the conference, being held under the theme “A United third Border: The future of US/Caribbean Trade and Investment Relations and the need for building a development partnership”.

The Miami Conference on the Caribbean, an initiative of the Caribbean and Central American Action, brings together public and private sector leaders from the regions in dialogue aimed at building common ground for the advancement of investment and trade relations.