Member of Parliament for St Ann North Eastern, the Jamaica Labour Party’s Marsha Smith says she is not troubled by her detractors in the constituency and claims that her relationship with constituents is much improved compared to several months ago when they were calling for her to be removed as MP.

READ: More heat on MP Marsha Smith

Speaking with OBSERVER ONLINE outside Gordon House during the ceremonial opening of Parliament on Tuesday, Smith said that more available time from her job as minister of state in the Ministry of Finance has allowed her to be more involved in the constituency.

“We are on our way to gelling back, but we are not where we were in September of last year, we are in a better place,” Smith said.

In September of 2022, irate residents staged took to the streets in protest against what they said was Smith’s performance in the constituency and to demand that she be ousted as the JLP standard bearer in the constituency. It followed similar protests against Smith’s stewardship earlier in the year.

Smith on Tuesday repeated an earlier explanation that she has been preoccupied with the ongoing public sector wage negotiations. She said with that process now in its latter stages, she was hopeful of spending more time on her MP duties.

“The last couple of months have been a lot of meeting with unions related to the compensation restructure but we are coming to the tail-end of that process so I am hoping that I will have a lot more available time to be more present in the constituency,” Smith said.

The MP added that she believes that she has enough support in the constituency to remain as the Labourite standard bearer despite calls for her to step down.

“The fact that I have detractors does not mean I don’t have my supporters, and I do have my supporters,” Smith told OBSERVER ONLINE.