GRANVILLE, Trelawny — In a stout defence of Jamaica Labour Party Leader Andrew Holness, Member of Parliament for St Andrew North Eastern Delroy Chuck on Sunday told Labourites that both he and the country’s leader are financially sound and do not need to rely on funds from the public purse.

“I know the prime minister for over 30 years… When I know him both of us working with [former JLP leader and Prime Minister] Edward Seaga. Edward Seaga told us to: ‘Make sure you invest and you can take care of yourself; you don’t want nothing from Government,’ “ said Chuck, who is also the minister of justice.

He was speaking at the JLP’s Martha Brae divisional conference in Trelawny.

“I know that over 30-odd years Andrew Holness, like me, has been investing so I don’t need a dollar from politics — and the same with Andrew Holness,” Chuck added.

He was speaking against the background of a 171-page report tabled by the Integrity Commission [IC] in Parliament that outlines the commission’s scrutiny of Holness’s statutory deductions, and its failure to certify the document. The IC recommended that both Financial Investigation Division (FID) and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) examine aspects of the financial affairs of Prime Minister Andrew Holness. However, it did not refer the prime minister for prosecution for failing to declare a number of banks accounts on which his name appeared when he filed his statutory declarations with the commission for the 2019-2022 period.

On Sunday, Chuck staunchly stood up for his party leader.

“In 2016 when they tried to impugn that the house he built was from illicit sources, I was able to say, ‘Mi know where the money come from to build that house,’ because I was the lawyer for his wife who built several apartments and townhouses and made good money that can build two of those houses that they built,” he said.

“In that [IC] report the prime minister has explained every single thing. But, they still put it out there for speculation,” Chuck added.