MANCHESTER Central Member of Parliament Peter Bunting has rubbished speculation that he wants to challenge Dr Peter Phillips for leadership of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

“There is a set of people on social media and otherwise… Everything Peter Bunting do, you hear him looking delegates to challenge Peter Phillips. Comrades, mash down that lie,” Bunting told supporters Sunday night at the party’s St Andrew East Central constituency conference at Jacisera Park in Kingston.

“Comrade Phillips knows he needs not look over his shoulder for this Comrade, so anybody you hear saying that, run them,” Bunting said to applause.

Last December when former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced plans to step down Phillips and Bunting signalled their intention to succeed her, but Bunting later backed off as overwhelming support among delegates for Phillips became clear.

Bunting said then that he had aspired as a candidate on the conviction that “it was time for the next generation of leadership to refresh the image of the party and help to attract a broader base of support, particularly among younger voters”.

But he later said that after consultations with the parliamentary and local government leadership he had concluded that the large majority of comrades felt that “it is Comrade Peter Phillips’ turn”.