Politics
PM’s Office Says Friday Remains Fully in Charge
A gazetted instrument placing the Prime Minister’s portfolios in Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock’s hands has drawn an unusual clarification from the Office of the Prime Minister, which says Dr Godwin Friday is in the country and performing all his duties.
Kingstown · 29 July 2026
The Office of the Prime Minister moved on Wednesday to quell speculation about Dr Godwin Friday’s hold on office, insisting that the Prime Minister remains in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is carrying out the full responsibilities of his post.
In a statement, the OPM described as misleading and erroneous a report circulating in the media, and said Friday “continues to perform the full functions of his Office.” It said the functions of the office are delegated only when the Prime Minister is outside the state.
The clarification follows the publication of a government instrument that, read on its own, appeared to hand sweeping authority to the Deputy Prime Minister. Instrument No. 99, printed in the Government Gazette of 21 July, charges Major St. Clair Leacock with the Prime Minister’s portfolios, a list that runs from finance and economic planning to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, citizenship, and legal affairs. It takes effect from 5 July and continues, in the document’s words, “until the resumption of duties by the Honourable Godwin Friday.”
The instrument, in brief
That open-ended wording, published weeks after the instrument was sealed on 2 July, is what allowed some reporting to frame the arrangement as a transfer of power. The OPM’s account is narrower. It said Leacock has exercised the functions of Prime Minister in an acting capacity only when Friday has been abroad, and that Hon. Daniel Cummings has acted when both the Prime Minister and his deputy were out of the state.
A routine travel instrument, read in isolation, can look like something far larger.
The 5 July start date coincides with Friday’s departure to lead the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines delegation to the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, held from 5 to 8 July. Instruments of this kind are the routine means by which a deputy is empowered to act while a Prime Minister travels. What the document does not do is itemise the specific dates or trips it covers, stating only that it runs until Friday resumes his duties. Vincypowa News has asked the OPM to specify the periods during which Leacock and Cummings have acted, and will update this report on receiving a response.
The clarification lands during a tense stretch for the administration. Friday and Foreign Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble are contesting election petitions brought by the Unity Labour Party, which argues that their Canadian citizenship disqualifies them from sitting in Parliament. The trial opened at the High Court in Kingstown on 28 July and is scheduled to run to 30 July. Both men attended court on the opening day, and a ruling against Friday could place his seat, and his office, in question.
Neither the instrument nor the OPM statement connects the delegation to that case. The government’s position is that Leacock’s acting role has been a function of the Prime Minister’s overseas travel and nothing more. The proximity of the two developments, a broadly worded instrument surfacing in the same window as a case that could unseat the Prime Minister, is what has driven the speculation the OPM now says it wants to correct.
For its part, the Office of the Prime Minister was unequivocal on the central point. Friday, it said, is in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and continues to run his office in full.
Lance Davis is the editor and publisher of Vincypowa News. This report will be updated if the Office of the Prime Minister provides further detail.