'No warmth' between Rhoda and Juliet

Government member of parliament (MP) Rhoda Moy Crawford says her relationship with Speaker of the House of Representatives Juliet Holness has been 'cold' because of what she says are false claims of a relationship with Prime Minister Andrew Holness. 

She addressed the near decade-old rumour in an interview with Nationwide News Network's Cliff Hughes on Wednesday morning. 

"Have you ever been involved in an intimate moment or relationship, affair with the prime minister?" Hughes asked, after Crawford raised the issue. 

"No, Cliff Hughes. Categorically no, I have never," she said, adding that "I do realise that sometimes some of my own parliamentary colleagues, they treat me differently. There are some things that I feel I am denied of because of this rumour."

Crawford, who stunned the People's National Party's Peter Bunting to win the Manchester central constituency in the 2020 general election, said she has been facing significant political attacks.  

She said she has a "good" relationship with the prime minister, but things with his the Speaker are different. 

"Mrs Holness ...there's no warmth like you would see the interactions with the other young female members of parliament."

"The relationship is cold?" Hughes asked, to which she said: "yes, I would say so."

Crawford explained: "This issue, it doesn't just affect me or the prime minister, the wife of the prime minister sits in the Parliament. She sits in the speaker's chair. And Cliff, I'm not afraid to tell you, that there are sometimes people who have very good relationship with me... sometimes you can see it appears that they are torn, like they don't want to engage me because they don't know if the rumours are true."

The rumours during her time as a member of Generation 2000, the young professional arm of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, and around the time of the internal JLP leadership challenge in 2012, Crawford said. 

And Crawford also dismissed rumours she said were being spread by "operatives" of the PNP that she was pregnant. She said she was dealing with fibroids, which are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb. 

"Those things are hurtful, those things are sickening, and then you have others that take it and run with it and put this out there without any consideration for how these things hurt people and their families," she said, noting that lawsuits have been contemplated.

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