Minister, accompanied by wife, greeted by protestors

Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves was greeted by a handful of protesters yesterday, when he turned up at the Beachcombers Hotel to deliver the feature address at a luncheon of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Gonsalves, who will make his maiden presentation of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure as Minister of Finance on Monday, was accompanied to the business luncheon by his wife Karen Duncan.

The Minister has been embroiled in a firestorm since January 5, when former model Yugge Farrell, 23, was remanded to the Mental Health and Rehabilitation Centre (MHC) for psychiatric evaluation, after she pleaded not guilty to causing a breach of the peace by using abusive language to the Minister’s wife, at her office at the Attorney-General’s chambers on January 4.

Farrell has alleged that she and Gonsalves were involved in an intimate relationship which ended in 2016.

Gonsalves has, so far, declined to comment, however, at yesterday’s luncheon, in an apparent reference to the matter, the Minister jokingly said he does not smoke or drink, but according to rumours, he has enough vices to add up.

The opposition New Democratic Party has called for Gonsalves to give a satisfactory explanation in response to Farrell’s allegations, or resign.