Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­fend­ed her two-day trip to Lon­don next Tues­day to at­tend the Com­mon­wealth Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ships Fo­rum. Speak­ing with re­porters at Iere High School in Siparia yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she in­her­it­ed the trip from for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, who served as head of the Com­mon­wealth.

"It is a com­mit­ment on the ba­sis of that of­fice to dis­hon­our would not be good for T&T," she said.

"It is a two-day trip... be­fore I am gone, I will be back."

Asked who would be ap­point­ed to act on her be­half, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she would make that de­ci­sion in Cab­i­net to­day.

A source said last night that Min­is­ter of To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment and To­ba­go East MP Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin was high­ly tipped to act as Prime Min­is­ter.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the for­mu­la used to de­ter­mine who held that po­si­tion was "see who would do a good job in the ab­sence of the PM, who would car­ry through the poli­cies and con­cerns of the par­ty and every sin­gle one of my MPs falls in­to that cat­e­go­ry."

The po­si­tion of act­ing PM was pre­vi­ous­ly held by Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an and Labour Min­is­ter Er­rol McLeod.