Member of Parliament Everald Warmington tendered his resignation from the Andrew Holness-led Cabinet on Thursday (February 29), staving off further public fallout for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) after a revealing outcome in the Local Government Elections.
During a short meeting where the two exchanged gratitude, Warmington was reportedly given the stepping orders by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
He relinquishes a nearly eight-year tenure as de facto works minister (Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation) for cheap political points that failed to increase the JLP’s social capital with the people.
In case you missed arguably the biggest story this week, the four-time MP for South Western St Catherine found himself in familiar, controversial territory for vowing to manipulate government funding.
The threat was in direct response to People’s National Party (PNP) councillor-elect Kurt Waul, who defeated incumbent JLP candidate Lloyd Grant in the Old Harbour South Division.
Being situated in Warmington’s constituency, and flipping ‘orange’ in a shock upset, the partisan change drew the ire of the outspoken and unapologetic politician.
Indeed, Warmington is a polarising, enigmatic figure. The one thing he was not, however, is a liar. Like clockwork, Warmington repeatedly blows a fuse and never fails to say exactly what is on his mind, be it good (which was rare) or bad.
Here are eight immortalised instances of Everald Warmington at his worst, publicly:
March 8, 2011: Roughly a month after tendering his resignation from Parliament for holding dual citizenship, Warmington told CVM news anchor Kerlyn Brown to “go to hell” in a live television interview that night. He rejected calls for an apology, and the matter was as good as buried after he won the April 4 by-election to remain South Western St Catherine MP.
August 2015: Arriving at a JLP meeting at its Belmont Road headquarters, Warmington reportedly hit a female Jamaica Gleaner intern, hurled expletives at media personnel, ‘flipped the bird’ to journalists, and objected to his photograph being taken.
October 2018: In his capacity as works minister, Warmington berated Business Access journalist Sashana Small in a telephone interview for asking him “damn nonsense” in connection to construction delays affecting the Hagley Park Road/Three Miles and Mandela Highway projects.
January 19, 2019: At the sitting of the House of Representatives, Warmington called Opposition MP Lisa Hanna “Jezebel” as a resolution to raise the minimum wage was being considered. He then labelled Richard Parchment and Mikael Phillips as “garbage”, immediately after withdrawing his barb at Hanna. “If it weren’t for politics a lowlife like you couldn’t talk to me.” Days later in a statement, Warmington insisted that he “didn’t invent the word [Jezebel]” and that it “aptly describes her behaviour”.
May/June 2021: Amid waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, Warmington went on an expletive-laced tirade against two policemen who seemed not to notice he was “exempt” from the island-wide curfew restrictions. The enraged minister, on realising he was being recorded outside the Old Harbour Bay Fisherman Co-operative building, then claimed the younger lawman had brandished his firearm at him. “Nuh try dis sh*t wid mi, Supt. Di man pull him clip a draw f#%ing gun here … . Dis bwoy can’t come tell mi what I’m exempt from.”
November 6, 2022: At a JLP constituency meeting, Warmington claimed that Opposition Leader Mark Golding‘s skin colour would be an obstacle to becoming prime minister. “So don’t talk say my leader born yah and you attack [Edward] Seaga and you don’t attack this leader. If he wants to be prime minister go back a England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, but him nah beat Michael Andrew Holness, I don’t talk about colour and race, but they started it, so let me finish it.”
January 25, 2023: On tour in the North East St Elizabeth constituency, Warmington slammed former JLP leader Bruce Golding for ‘betraying’ the organisation he once led at the SSL scandal unfolded. According to him, it would have better served Golding not to say that the scandal reflected badly on the Government but instead contact Prime Minister Andrew Holness “and talk to him behind closed doors”.
July 25, 2023: Warmington lashes out against perceived attempts to “muzzle” him during a sitting of the Integrity Commission Oversight Committee. Claiming committee chairman Edmund Bartlett was silencing the ‘truth’, he walked out of the meeting. “If I can’t ask my question freely and you want to muzzle me, you can keep your meeting by yourself. You want to muzzle me and your rulings are, what I call it, your feeling with no basis.”
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