Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has dou­bled down on her crit­i­cism of Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les for what she de­scribed as a fail­ure to take de­ci­sive ac­tion re­gard­ing the fu­ture of Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates, as con­tro­ver­sy con­tin­ues to swirl over the sen­a­tor’s res­ig­na­tion and her role on key par­lia­men­tary over­sight com­mit­tees.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments came as a Gov­ern­ment mo­tion to re­place John-Bates on a par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tee on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty con­tin­ued in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions of im­prop­er con­duct linked to a doc­u­ment sub­mis­sion now un­der scruti­ny.

John-Bates ten­dered her res­ig­na­tion near­ly two weeks ago, but Beck­les has yet to pub­licly state whether she has for­mal­ly ac­cept­ed it.