KINGSTON, Jamaica— Prime Minister Andrew Holness has hit back at claims by the People’s National Party (PNP) that they— and not the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)— started Jamaica on the road to fiscal discipline.

Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson declared this to be a “PNP baby” and stated that if Holness said otherwise he would be claiming a “jacket”.

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He made the statement during his contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate on March 13. Both Robinson and Opposition Leader Mark Golding asserted that the JLP and Jamaicans are benefiting from what the PNP started.

However, Holness shot back during his contribution to the debate on Thursday at Gordon House.

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“True to their bipolar nature, the PNP wants to claim paternity after causing the mother – the people – so much hardship. In the 2023 budget, the leader of the opposition complained that the government was moving too fast to reduce debt, he advocated that we abandon the fiscally responsible path, use J$40b (in other words, party with the rent money) from debt repayment to spend on temporary relief. In this Budget, when he sees the amazing benefit of reducing the debt to 68 per cent (of GDP), he is now claiming that the reduction in the debt is due to the PNP’s faithfulness to fiscal prudence,” Holness said.

“This reminds me of the classic tale of what we call in Jamaica the “wutliss” father who causes the mother so much pain, and then abandons the child, but when the child grows up to be successful, out of the blue they turn up to claim paternity and associate with the success.

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The leader of the opposition is a man of convenience, flip flopping between prudence and popularity when it suits him. One minute he disowns the child of fiscal discipline and then the next he claims the child of fiscal discipline. The mother remembers the pain of Finsac and the high interest rate policy, the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, and she knows that she cannot trust this “wutliss” man, so she did the DNA test, and the results are in, when it comes to 15 year-old Fiscal Discipline, PNP you are NOT the father,” Holness stated to laughter and desk banging from Government members.

“Yes, your name was called, but it is another Golding that is the father,” he added, a reference that former Prime Minister Bruce Golding was responsible for setting Jamaica on the road to fiscal discipline.