The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has reaf­firmed it will not join Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Cab­i­net fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in of min­is­ters and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries yes­ter­day.

“Our strat­e­gy has al­ways been clear,” said Dr Faith Breb­nor, TPP Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader. “Our MPs are there to ne­go­ti­ate for To­ba­go, not to join any­one’s Cab­i­net.”

Speak­ing af­ter the swear­ing-in, Breb­nor said the TPP would re­main out­side any coali­tion. “There is an Ex­ec­u­tive in Trinidad and an Ex­ec­u­tive in To­ba­go. The law is clear about how these two should work.”

Asked whether the par­ty’s two MPs would vote in­de­pen­dent­ly of the PNM or UNC, she said, “That’s ex­act­ly what we mean.”

“Our MPs will ne­go­ti­ate out­side Par­lia­ment and vote in­side on the is­sues that af­fect To­ba­go,” she added.

To­ba­go was men­tioned in Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­marks yes­ter­day, with a promise to work with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly on long-de­layed au­ton­o­my leg­is­la­tion. “To­ba­go has tremen­dous re­sources … the law for ten years has stalled, maybe even more,” The PM said. “We’ll be look­ing at a mod­el that tru­ly re­flects what we sing in our an­them: side by side we stand, Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Breb­nor said the TPP will stick to its po­si­tion. “Where clar­i­ty or fair­ness is need­ed, we’ll ne­go­ti­ate out­side and vote ac­cord­ing­ly.”