Lovitta Foggo, the Shadow Minister for Education, has questioned whether Leah Scott should be retained as a junior minister.

After debate over a letter by the MP that bore striking similarities to a website article, the Progressive Labour Party last night called for her resignation.

Ms Foggo said she had been “dismayed” by the One Bermuda Alliance MP’s denial of plagiarism.

Ms Scott, Junior Minister of Education, wrote a letter to the editor published in The Royal Gazette on Friday.

Ms Scott was subsequently criticised for the letter’s similarity to an article published on an American news and media website, hellobeautiful.com.

The Southampton East MP has denied plagiarism and said she had intended to credit the website — she added a note cited the article as a source for her letter the following day.

“My error in submitting the letter without references was inadvertent and unintentional,” Ms Scott told The Royal Gazette on Sunday night.

“I took the necessary steps to immediately correct this wrong by providing The Royal Gazette with the necessary citation and an apology to the readers for not including the source at the time of publication.”

She said on Saturday: “I can only humble myself and apologise to all who I have offended.”

But Ms Foggo was unrelenting, as have most of Ms Scott’s critics on social media.

“As a former educator, I am dismayed by the recent actions of OBA MP and Junior Minister of Education, Leah Scott, where she denied plagiarism in her recent Letter to the Editor,” Ms Foggo said.

“When comparing an op-ed published on hellobeautiful.com back in 2010 to the letter the Junior Minister submitted last week, the contents were strikingly similar.

“This has led to accusations of plagiarism in the public domain, as evidenced both on local media websites, social media and over the airwaves.

“However, the OBA MP continues to deny what appears as the obvious to many Bermudians.

“An apology and admission would seem to have been the logical response. However, this not being the case has only served to further inflame the situation.

“Her subsequent attempt to qualify plagiarism by stating that she didn’t copy ‘word for word’ is an affront and no defence. As a member of the local bar and the Junior Minister of Education, Ms Scott has fallen short.”

Ms Foggo said Ms Scott “should be a standard bearer”.

She added: “Any statement implying that it is OK to take someone else’s work as long as you don’t copy ‘word for word’ is certainly not a practice accepted in academia at any level: primary, secondary nor tertiary.

“The usual result to such an action is a zero allocation or the grade ‘F’.

“I would suggest that MP Scott’s behaviour would warrant like consequences, especially since this is compounded by no admission or expression of apology.

“How would a student deem this behaviour? Does she pass the test? Would an honour student retain such a title if she was found to have plagiarised? Should the Junior Minister expect to retain her title?

“To promote excellence in our school system, we must lead by example and be a testament to the behaviour we expect of our students.

“I would hope that after the strong negative reaction to MP Scott’s less than acceptable explanation that she will do the honourable thing and relinquish the title of Junior Minister for Education.”