While Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les re­mains mum on Janelle John-Bates’ sen­a­to­r­i­al fu­ture, Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Bench in the Sen­ate Dr Amery Browne is ask­ing for pa­tience, stress­ing the need for Beck­les to have time to make the best de­ci­sion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia out­side the Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Dr Browne said, “This Sen­a­tor (John-Bates), who, as far as I’m aware, has not been ac­cused of break­ing any law or com­mit­ting any crim­i­nal of­fence, has ad­mit­ted to an er­ror, has of­fered a res­ig­na­tion; it’s be­ing du­ly con­sid­ered.

“Five days, I think, let’s give a lit­tle more time to the process. Let’s have con­fi­dence in our Leader of the Op­po­si­tion to make the right de­ci­sion, to con­vey it in a re­spon­si­ble man­ner, and the Sen­ate team, the com­mit­tees, etc, will move on… She’s (John-Bates) al­ready been re­placed on this spe­cif­ic com­mit­tee (Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee), so all the right steps are be­ing tak­en.”