PRIME Minister Bruce Golding held a series of consultations with key groups in his ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday as calls for him to resign over his handling of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair reached a crescendo.

Members of the party’s parliamentary group spent the better part of yesterday afternoon with Golding at Vale Royal — the official residence of the prime minister — where they closed ranks and declared their support for their embattled leader, who has called an emergency meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee — the second highest decision-making body outside of annual conference — for tomorrow.

At approximately 5:00 pm yesterday, the party’s senators issued a statement expressing their full support for Golding, who has been facing scathing criticism since Tuesday when he confessed that he, in his capacity as JLP leader, had sanctioned a US$50,000 deal with the US-based law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby the US Government in the controversial Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition matter.

“All 13 government senators hereby place on record our full support of, and confidence in, the honourable Bruce Golding as leader of the Jamaica Labour Party and prime minister of Jamaica. We are of the view that no impropriety took place in the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair, which involves the Jamaica Labour Party,” the statement said.

“We acknowledge that the prime minister told the country the truth when he said in March that the Government of Jamaica had not retained Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to act on behalf of the Government of Jamaica, and that remains true today,” the senators said. “We commend the prime minister for his forthrightness to the country in his statement to Parliament in which he acknowledged that as leader of the JLP he sanctioned the party’s initiative in retaining Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.”

On March 16, Golding, in response to a question by Opposition parliamentarian Dr Peter Phillips, had vehemently denied that the administration had any dealings with Manatt.

Golding heightened the controversy on Tuesday when he confessed that he sanctioned the approach to Manatt and insisted that his action was carried out in his role as JLP leader, not at prime minister.

Since then, calls for him to step down as head of the Government have come from various sectors of the society, including the Opposition People’s National Party and its affiliates, human rights group Jamaicans For Justice and Golding’s former party, the National Democratic Movement.

Yesterday, the Jamaica Council of Churches waded into the controversy.

“We are deeply disappointed at the way in which events have unfolded and are of the view that his actions have done serious damage to his credibility as prime minister and to the name and image of our country,” the Council of Churches said in a news release.

The group, which consists of the Church of God in Jamaica, Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches, and the Jamaica Pentecostal Union, described as “spurious and born purely of expediency” Golding’s attempt to separate the roles and functions of prime minister and JLP leader.

“This blurring of the roles of prime minister and party leader, as well as taking advantage of the Standing Orders of Parliament to avoid that which is fundamentally required — the provision of the complete truth on a subject causing enormous disquiet to multiple thousands of Jamaicans — is a matter of grave concern for our nation,” the church body said.

The council said it was of the view that given Golding’s professed commitment to a new governance model and his avowed commitment to stamping out corruption, based on the vexed and worrying perception of the nexus between politics and crime, the situation warranted a clear and unequivocal response and action.

“In light of this, we call upon our prime minister to tender his resignation forthwith, an action which we believe will signal not just regret but will serve as an important platform for the rebuilding of our political leadership going forward,” the group said.

Yesterday, Information Minister Daryl Vaz, fuming over radio reports that Golding had signalled he would be stepping down, described the claims as “irresponsible”, saying that they could damage Jamaica’s image overseas.

“How could anyone expect that the prime minister would hear calls for his resignation one day and step down the next?” Vaz asked. “To publish that the PM is resigning without any truth to that is very irresponsible,” he said.

The urgency of yesterday’s meeting was evident by the flurry of arrivals of Labour Party officials, in heavily tinted vehicles, at Vale Royal.

Some of the party’s delegates and supporters showed up on foot, in taxis and, in one case, on a motorcycle.

One woman, scantily attired in spaghetti straps and tights, was quickly allowed entrance after she gave her name to the two stern-faced policemen at the gate.

A male and female delegate both emerged from the hallowed halls of Vale Royal long enough to address journalists through the closed gates.

“We are shower delegates who deh behind him and Bruce nah resign,” said the woman, loudly.

The two, who said they were from the prime minister’s West Kingston constituency, argued there was no way the prime minister would be forced to step down.

“When PJ (Patterson) did have the Shell scandal did you tell him to resign?” the man asked as he took a swig of an alcoholic beverage.

“Ye who have no sin cast the first stone,” the woman declared loudly before blasting sections of the media for reporting that Golding was contemplating stepping down.