THE Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has closed ranks behind Member of Parliament (MP) for St James Southern Nekeisha Burchell, who has come under sustained attack from members of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over her conduct in the House of Representatives.

In a media release on Thursday the Opposition challenged the criticisms of Burchell by people on the Government benches and charged that there has been a concentrated attempt by the Government to silence its members in Parliament — a move it said would pose a threat to democracy.

But, in a quick response, the JLP claimed that the PNP has uttered “a series of barefaced and unadulterated lies in a bid to distract from public backlash it is receiving for its consistently disruptive and outrageous conduct in the Parliament”.