VP Jagdeo under fire for calling female Opposition MP "a low-life"

The Opposition APNU+AFC today slammed Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo for calling Opposition Member of Parliament Cathy Hughes a “low life.”

The Vice President’s unsavory remarks were made in response to a statement Ms. Hughes made during a public meeting in Linden recently, where she told supporters that they must not forget that it was Mr. Jagdeo who once floated the idea of giving Venezuela a channel out at sea.

The statement irked the Vice President , who lashed out at the Opposition MP during a press conference at the Office of the President.

“Cathy Hughes, went to the people in Linden and say that I promised them (Venezuela) this is the rumormongering among people because they hate the PPP or maybe me, that they are prepared to compromise even our border, and from someone a low life like Cathy Hughes,’ Jagdeo said.

Hughes is the Chairman of the Alliance for Change, which makes up part of the APNU+AFC parliamentary opposition.

In response to the Vice President’s name calling, AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, said Mr. Jagdeo’s statement must be rejected in its entirety and it cannot be business as usual when a Vice President calls and describes a woman as a ‘low life’.

“Most reprehensible, most ignoble, but then he never liked women as it were. This guy has gotten to the state of almost insanity now and cussing everybody,” Ramjattan said.

PNC/R Central Executive Member, Dr. Gary Best also condemned Mr. Jagdeo’s utterances and said he must offer a full apology to Mrs. Hughes.

“I want to join with the Leader of the AFC in calling for an apology from the gentleman who referred to an AFC member- Ms. Hughes, that is reprehensible and that should not be allowed in this country and there are many agencies that should be speaking out on this issue,” Best said.

The issue was also picked up by Opposition Member of Parliament Amanza Walton- Desir, who accused the Vice President of having no respect for women.

“ I want to be very clear that this level of misogyny in our politics is unacceptable. This is a female Member of Parliament that was called a low life, Mrs. Catherine Hughes and this is troubling because for the last three weeks how many women have we lost to violence—women murdered, found raped and battered and so for the Vice President of this country to treat and to address a female Member of the National Assembly and a former Minister of government in such a manner, we must understand that this type of attitudes at the highest level of leadership directly contributes to what we are seeing playing out in our society today and it must be condemned,” Walton-Desir Stated.

Mrs. Hughes’ husband, prominent Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes, also highlighted the matter on his social media page.

The term “low-life” is usually seen as a derogatory racist remark.