Jenkins and Thomas differ on election mandate as MHKs question Chief Minister hopefuls

Kirrie Jenkins and Chris Thomas, the two MHKs bidding to succeed Alfred Cannan as Chief Minister, offered contrasting views on how much general election results should count in choosing a leader when fellow members questioned them at hustings in Tynwald on Thursday.

Both also faced questions on funding their spending promises and on transport links.

The House of Keys, the elected chamber of Tynwald, will choose between them on Tuesday, 13 October. The winner needs the votes of 13 of the 24 MHKs, the BBC reported.

The election mandate

Douglas South MHK Claire Christian asked whether every elected MHK has an equal constitutional right to stand for Chief Minister. Mr Thomas answered simply “yes”, Energy FM reported.

Mrs Jenkins said the Keys was the only branch of Tynwald that voters choose directly, while the public had no direct say over who becomes Chief Minister.

“I think the mandate needs to go to the person who led the poll in their constituency,” she said, adding: “Once the chief minister decision is made, everybody is equal.”

Paying for pledges

Mr Cannan, the MHK for Ayre and Michael, said the afternoon’s proposals could add millions of pounds to spending, from household support to grid upgrades, and asked both candidates where the money would come from, Energy FM reported.

Both said priority-based budgeting had a part to play. Mrs Jenkins called for firmer control of public finances, less dependence on reserves and a published plan for balancing the books. “We need growth and we need discipline and we need transparency together,” she said.

She named health as the government’s largest financial risk. “The elephant in the room is health,” she said, calling for a recovery programme with milestones and regular reports to Tynwald.

Mr Thomas said capital spending had to be treated separately from day-to-day costs. He put the current capital programme at about £80 million a year, roughly £30 million of it on Manx Utilities Authority schemes and £50 million on upkeep of existing infrastructure.

Future national infrastructure needs could reach “hundreds of millions”, he warned, so projects would have to be ranked by need, including the STEM block at QEII High School, Scoill ny Jubilee and Castle Rushen High School. On the structural deficit, he said: “We need to be brutal with ourselves.”

Air and sea links

Jason Moorhouse, MHK for Arbory, Castletown and Malew, asked how the candidates would tackle travel problems, citing uncertainty over easyJet and possible industrial action involving Loganair, and raised airport passenger duty, Energy FM reported.

“For 30 years on and off island travel has been the worst thing about living on the Isle of Man,” Mr Thomas said. He described the coming end of the government’s Loganair contract as a chance to look again at passenger duty, airline charges, how the airport is run and investment in services, with any public money carefully targeted. He said air services and the Steam Packet should be weighed together, since a change to one could affect the other.

Mrs Jenkins said voters had raised travel repeatedly during the campaign. “I spoke to a lot of people who said that their number one issue was getting on and off the island,” she said. She called for improvements at Ronaldsway, including staffing and air traffic control, so airlines found it easier to fly there, and said some investors were choosing not to move to the island because of travel difficulties.

On the Steam Packet, the BBC reported, Mrs Jenkins said rising freight charges were being passed on to firms, while Mr Thomas said the government could lean on the sea services agreement and its ownership of the company to press for changes.

Contrasting approaches

Mr Thomas pointed to his time at the Treasury and his work on the minimum wage formula, and said his four election wins meant he had “already built trust”. “This is not about old versus new, it’s about all of us blending together,” he said.

Mrs Jenkins argued for a more collegiate style of government, with members agreeing priorities together, and said the island could “do government differently”. “I see the chief minister as the conductor of the orchestra,” she said.