As con­grat­u­la­tions and best wish­es con­tin­ued to pour in for the Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar found her­self in hot wa­ter when a con­grat­u­la­to­ry mes­sage on her Face­book page post­ed around noon, re­flect­ed the ex­act word­ing of sev­er­al tweets post­ed by a British diplo­mat.

Sir Keir Rod­ney Starmer, a British politi­cian and for­mer lawyer who has served as Leader of the Labour Par­ty and Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, tweet­ed sev­er­al hours be­fore Per­sad-Bisses­sar post­ed on her pub­lic Face­book page, a mes­sage with the same word­ing, ex­cept for the last few lines.

This prompt­ed for­mer Min­is­ter of Food Pro­duc­tion De­vant Ma­haraj to post a pho­to of both mes­sages with the ques­tion, "pla­gia­rism?" PNM so­cial me­dia ac­tivists al­so ques­tioned whether Per­sad-Bisses­sar had stolen Starmer's com­ments.

The orig­i­nal post on her page was re­moved and a new mes­sage was post­ed last night. In it, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, "On be­half of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, I wish to ex­tend con­grat­u­la­tions to Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden on be­com­ing the 46th Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. I wish to al­so ex­tend a spe­cial con­grat­u­la­tions to the new Vice Pres­i­dent-elect Ka­mala Har­ris, who is now the first woman and per­son of colour to hold this of­fice."

Kam­la's ear­li­er post

Ear­li­er that day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had stat­ed in the Face­book post, "Con­grat­u­la­tions to Joe Biden on his elec­tion as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. He ran a cam­paign on de­cen­cy, in­tegri­ty, com­pas­sion and strength.

"I al­so want to con­grat­u­late Ka­mala Har­ris on be­ing elect­ed Vice-Pres­i­dent, the first woman and per­son of colour to take that role. Their vic­to­ry is one for hope and uni­ty over dis­hon­esty and di­vi­sion.

"Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans of all back­grounds and ages came to­geth­er to vote for a bet­ter, more op­ti­mistic fu­ture.

"This is al­so an im­por­tant mo­ment for the world. It is a chance to re­assert Amer­i­ca's place as a force for good on the world stage..."

Starmer's post

Starmer's orig­i­nal post read, "Con­grat­u­la­tions to Joe Biden on his elec­tion as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca.

"He ran a cam­paign on the val­ues that we in the Unit­ed King­dom share—de­cen­cy, in­tegri­ty, com­pas­sion and strength.

"And I want to con­grat­u­late Ka­mala Har­ris on be­ing elect­ed Vice-Pres­i­dent, the first woman of colour to take that role.

"Their vic­to­ry is one for hope and uni­ty over dis­hon­esty and di­vi­sion.

"Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans of all back­ground and ages have come to­geth­er to vote for a bet­ter, more op­ti­mistic fu­ture. This is al­so an im­por­tant mo­ment for the world. It is a chance to re­assert Amer­i­ca's place as a force for good on the world stage..."

UNC Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Ani­ta Haynes, par­ty chair­man David Lee and mem­bers of Per­sad-Bisses­sar's pub­lic re­la­tions team were not avail­able for com­ment last night.

Apol­o­gy to Starmer

Hours lat­er, on Per­sad-Bisses­sar's Face­book page, there was an apol­o­gy to Starmer. "To­day we ex­pe­ri­enced an ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror. We apol­o­gise for this mis­take and have since tak­en steps to en­sure this does not re­oc­cur. Apolo­gies ex­tend­ed to Sir Keir Starmer (Ad­min­is­tra­tor)."

St Au­gus­tine MP Khadi­jah Ameen, re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia, stat­ed: "The ad­min­is­tra­tor of the page has apol­o­gised to the leader of the Op­po­si­tion and to the orig­i­nal poster Sir Starmer."