Scores of Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers made their way to Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, gath­er­ing op­po­site the Red House to show sup­port for Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo as he pre­pared to present the 2026 Bud­get.

Most wore the reg­u­lar UNC yel­low T-shirts, while oth­ers donned the blue of the re­cent Gen­er­al Elec­tion cam­paign. They held plac­ards with var­ied mes­sages, some prais­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, oth­ers back­ing Tan­coo, and some show­ing sup­port for Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee amid his re­cent crim­i­nal charges.

As the crowd grew, mem­bers of the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU), led by pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get, and the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion, led by pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas, joined the UNC faith­ful.

Every Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter who ar­rived at the Red House drew cheers, in­clud­ing Point Fortin MP Ernesto Ke­sar, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, St Au­gus­tine MP Khadi­jah Ameen, Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath, Tu­na­puna MP Roger Alexan­der and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Tan­coo.

The loud­est re­ac­tion came for Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar, dressed in a sari, who paused to shake a few hands. Be­fore en­ter­ing Par­lia­ment, she briefly told the me­dia to ex­pect “a peo­ple’s bud­get.”

Not all ar­rivals re­ceived a warm re­cep­tion. Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les faced boos and jeers from some in the crowd.