Everald Warmington, the veteran politician who triggered more controversy than a dancehall artiste but was repeatedly rewarded with a seat in Parliament and a place in the executive, was on Thursday removed from the Cabinet for unsavoury comments he made this week in relation to the allocation of State resources.

Word of Warmington’s ouster from the Executive came in a statement from Prime Minister Andrew Holness hours after Opposition Leader Mark Golding informed the nation that Dennis Meadows has been sacked as the People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for Trelawny Northern.

Meadows’s fall from grace came after a video emerged of him approving the criminal act of lottery scamming during a PNP meeting in the run-up to the February 26, 2024 Local Government Elections.

Pointing out that he viewed lottery scamming as a form of reparation, Meadows said his only issue with it is when the ill-gotten gains are squandered.

“Let me tell you straight up, and me can speak openly. I have no problem with a man if him wah chop. Because dem chop us during slavery so nothing wrong if we chop dem back,” he said as supporters cheered in agreement. “My only problem with chopping is that when you bingo, and you score, use the money wisely.”

In Jamaica, a “choppa” refers to a person involved in scamming.

Although Meadows issued an apology and withdrew the comments, telling the Jamaica Observer that he “misspoke”, Golding said that his “continuation as the candidate is untenable in light of his egregious remarks on the platform, given that scamming is one of Jamaica’s most serious national security challenges”.

Golding said the sacking was a warning to all who serve the PNP under his leadership that the party is demanding higher standards of accountability.

“Jamaica will no longer tolerate weak, unprincipled leaders who say one thing but do another. Jamaicans deserve better, and I will give it to them,” he said.

On the other side of the political aisle, Warmington, who was the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with responsibility for works, had suggested to Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters on Monday that he would starve PNP councillor-elect for the Old Harbour South Division, Dr Kurt Waul, of money to carry out work in his division.

Facing immense backlash, Warmington issued a statement late Wednesday, arguing that his comments were “misunderstood” as it was never his intention to imply that a duly elected councillor should be denied rightful funding for their municipal division.

“I want to clarify: My remarks were focused on the established practice that MPs direct funds for constituencies, while councillors direct funds from the municipal council. These are distinct and separate channels,” he said.

“To the extent that my comments, which were made in the heat of the moment and perhaps could have been more clearly stated, have been misinterpreted as endorsing victimisation, I unequivocally reject any such sentiment,” Warmington said.

“I therefore unequivocally withdraw the statement and apologise to the people of Jamaica,” he added.

However, on Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Holness issued a statement saying that he had met with Warmington and, at the end of the meeting, “I received his resignation from the Cabinet”.

Warmington, who has been the parliamentary representative for St Catherine South Western since 2002, has had a long history of public verbal atrocities, especially with his political rivals and journalists.

In August 2015, he showed journalists the middle finger when they asked him about his thoughts going into a meeting of the JLP parliamentary group at the party headquarters in St Andrew.

That gesture came a few days after he had apologised for his boorish behaviour when he used a notebook to push away a reporter’s camera, then proceeded to use a barrage of expletives when other journalists intervened.

On Thursday, before news that both politicians had been cashiered, the Jamaica Council of Churches issued a statement saying that the utterances of the two politicians “demand decisive and unequivocal responses on the part of those who lead”.

“This is because of the potential for serious damage to the international reputation of our nation. It raises an alarm, as well, regarding the deteriorating moral fabric of our nation and draws attention to the urgent need to arrest this decline,” the council said and called on the Government “to strengthen the mandate and mechanism for the monitoring of breaches of the Political Code of Conduct”.