George Wright back in the JLP fold?
It appears that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmoreland Central, George Wright, is back in the fold of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Wright is a featured speaker at a JLP Youth Conference this Sunday at the Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland. He appears on the event flyer beside other speakers who include the MP for Westmoreland Western, Morland Wilson and the MP for Westmoreland Eastern, Daniel Lawrence. Also down to speak is the newly-minted Senator, Delano Seiveright, JLP deputy leader J.C. Hutchinson and the MP for St Elizabeth South Western, Floyd Green.
Wright resigned from the JLP in June 2021, nine months after he was elected MP in the September 2020 general election. This, after a viral video surfaced in late April 2021 showing a man, believed to be Wright, raining blows on a woman with both his fists and a stool.
Although neither Wright nor the woman, Tannisha Singh, with whom he had an intimate relationship at the time, confirmed that they were the individuals in the video, both filed separate reports with the police. However, neither Wright nor Singh, who he later married after a reported year of counseling, cooperated with the police, forcing them to drop their investigation.
The damage was done however and Wright was forced to resign. He has sat as an independent MP on the Opposition side of the House of Representatives since, but has always voted with the Government. His government colleagues often show him open support.
In January it was reported that Wright had reapplied for membership in the JLP back in October last year. This was confirmed by party General Secretary Dr Horace Chang who indicated that, being an election year, the party would have been deciding quickly on Wright’s membership. It is now apparent that the prodigal son is back in the fold.
The first-term MP will be looking to retain the seat he wrested from the People’s National Party’s Dwayne Vaz when he polled 4,485 votes to Vaz’s 3,958 to break more than three decades of PNP dominance in what was regarded as the Opposition party’s safest seat in western Jamaica.