Vaz claims Warmington was provoked

Everald Warmington, the Member of Parliament for South West St Catherine, was reportedly called a faggot in Parliament, which prompted him to insult Lisa Hanna, labelling her as a Jezebel.

Opposition MP Daryl Vaz said that Warmington was called names such as b-man and faggot by members of the government side.

North West Manchester Member of Parliament, Mikael Phillips, on Tuesday brought a motion to Parliament asking the members to consider disciplinary actions against Warmington.

Warmington twice called Lisa Hanna, MP for South East St Ann, a Jezebel during the previous week's sitting of the House of Representatives.

In his motion, Phillips called for the matter be referred to the Committee of Privileges for consideration and report on whether Warmington should be sanctioned for his actions and behaviour.

Phillips said the committee finds that Warmington should be sanctioned and it should also

recommend the appropriate punishment.

The first time MP has also called for the establishment and implementation of a Code of Parliamentary Conduct for all Members of the House of Representatives, any breach of which will result in sanction against offending members.

Phillips said that members of the House should be cognisant that parliamentary privilege should be exercised with responsibility and decorum befitting their roles as representatives of the people of Jamaica.

He said that by his disorderly conduct last week, Warmington hampered the proceedings and led to a waste of parliamentary time.

He said, too, that in addition to using unparliamentary remarks to fellow Members of the House, Warmington should be cited for his failure to respect and adhere to the authority of the Speaker and his general display of contempt for the House of Representatives.

A furious Delroy Chuck told Speaker Michael Peart that "You should never have allowed this motion."

"This motion is out of place," said Chuck, who fumed that Warmington was provoked.

"Call the man b-man," he said.

The term b-man is used to describe a homosexual.

Hansard does not support the claim of abuse the two times that Hanna was called a Jezebel, but Warmington insists that she made degrading comments about him.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has introduced two pieces of proposed law in Parliament which seeks to increase the penalty for crimes committed against children.

One of the bills allows for an additional 10 years' imprisonment to be added to the sentence of persons found guilty of crimes such as rape, abuse, buggery, assault and murder. If passed into law, the minimum period which the person who carries out ills against children shall serve, before becoming eligible for parole, will be increased by 10 years.