Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ridiculed Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’ claim that Trinidad and To­ba­go is in a re­ces­sion, sug­gest­ing in­stead that it is the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) fac­ing fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties.

In a scathing re­sponse to Beck­les’ con­tri­bu­tion to the 2027 Bud­get de­bate in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar took aim at the ap­par­ent halt in con­struc­tion at the PNM’s Bal­isi­er House head­quar­ters.

“Bal­isi­er House fund­ing is in re­ces­sion. Cakes, fudge, toolum seems to not be sell­ing any­more, so con­struc­tion stopped. So I sup­pose the PNM is fac­ing a re­ces­sion,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

She al­so re­ject­ed the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion of the Gov­ern­ment as a dic­ta­tor­ship, ques­tion­ing how such an ac­cu­sa­tion could be made in a de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed Par­lia­ment.

“The irony of false­ly de­clar­ing a dic­ta­tor­ship while speak­ing in­side a re­pub­li­can par­lia­ment with 40 oth­er de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

The Prime Min­is­ter end­ed her re­sponse with an­oth­er in­sult di­rect­ed at the Op­po­si­tion par­ty.

“As I said be­fore, this is the ab­solute dumb­est ver­sion of the PNM.”