Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son said she would "see how things go" when asked if she would throw her hat in the ring to be the next leader of the PNM.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia as she made her way to a vil­la at the To­ba­go Plan­ta­tions where the PNM Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans are cur­rent­ly in a two-day re­treat, Beck­les-Robin­son added, "Right now the im­por­tant thing is the re­treat and how we en­sure that we sup­port the po­lit­i­cal leader and the prime min­is­ter at this time be­cause I know of his com­mit­ment to coun­try."

Beck­les-Robin­son sought to re­mind Guardian Me­dia that she had pre­vi­ous­ly con­test­ed the post of PNM po­lit­i­cal leader.

"Al­ways re­mem­ber that I did chal­lenge and I lost," she said.

In 2014, Beck­les Robin­son com­pre­hen­sive­ly lost to Kei­th Row­ley in the PNM in­ter­nal elec­tions.

Dr Row­ley re­ceived 18,070 votes com­pared to her 1,314.

Pressed fur­ther on whether she has fu­ture as­pi­ra­tions to be the po­lit­i­cal leader, the Ari­ma MP said, "As far as I know, at this point in time there re­al­ly isn't a va­can­cy. An elec­tion is com­ing I've had the op­por­tu­ni­ty again to serve Ari­ma and I just want to say to the peo­ple of Ari­ma, the ex­ec­u­tive and the con­stituen­cy, what a great ho­n­our it's been to serve and of course to thank Dr Row­ley for giv­ing me the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn from the Unit­ed States as an am­bas­sador and to have had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve in the cab­i­net."

Prais­ing her po­lit­i­cal leader, she added, "I just want to wish him well, I have had the great ho­n­our of serv­ing un­der him, both in the Sen­ate and in the House. And I am proud of the work he has done.

Of course, he has spo­ken to about go­ing to be with his fam­i­ly, that's al­ways the biggest chal­lenge in pol­i­tics. Your fam­i­ly is re­al­ly the most im­por­tant thing in terms of the sup­port, and I re­al­ly want to take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ac­knowl­edge what he has done for the par­ty and the coun­try."

Mean­while Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon said she would not wish to spec­u­late on who she prefers to be the next po­lit­i­cal leader.

"I'm not go­ing to say that now and add fu­el to the fire. Let that be set­tled in­ter­nal­ly and I'm sure the PNM will car­ry a trail­blaz­er as we've al­ways done. Cer­tain­ly, I know that we will win the next elec­tion," she told Guardian Me­dia at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort where the Cab­i­net mem­bers are stay­ing dur­ing the re­treat.

Min­is­ter in the Hous­ing Min­istry, Adri­an Leonce said he does not have a spe­cif­ic choice for leader.

The two-day Par­lia­men­tary re­treat is be­ing held at a vil­la at To­ba­go Plan­ta­tions. Guardian Me­dia was told they be­gan work at 9AM to­day.

Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is had pre­vi­ous­ly said that the pur­pose of the re­treat is to re­view its ac­tiv­i­ties and plan its pro­gramme for 2025.

How­ev­er with Dr Row­ley's re­cent an­nounce­ment of his ap­proach­ing res­ig­na­tion, the agen­da may fo­cus on the par­ty's suc­ces­sion plan­ning.