The One Bermuda Alliance last night issued a statement of support for backbencher Leah Scott, who appeared to break with party ranks during Friday’s House of Assembly.

A spokesman said Bermuda’s people wanted their elected officials to work together, adding that “they would expect that when there are disagreements to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner; thus we support our colleague”.

However, the OBA maintained that the Opposition had been “divisive in action and language on too many occasions and that the Opposition Leader had been the chief protagonist”, calling it “most unfortunate and unhelpful”.

Ms Scott’s appeal for an end to divisive rhetoric came during the second week in which both sides of Parliament collaborated on legislation, leading some MPs to call for further partnership.

The Junior Education Minister fought back tears during the debate on immigration policy — siding with Opposition MP Walton Brown’s call for a bipartisan review of policy.

Voicing sympathy for protesters who had marched on the Senate against the Immigration and Protection Amendment Act 2015, Ms Scott told the House: “People are very passionate because Bermudians feel that their birthrights have been taken from them.”

She added: “They’re unhappy and we need to listen to their voices. We need to listen to what they have to say.

“So while I agree that we need wholesale reform, we need to listen and we need to come together.”

Ms Scott went on: “People are scared. I understand the fear. I have been in a situation where I have seen the Belco man come to turn off my lights.”

Empathising with the humiliation of being unable to cover bills, Ms Scott had to pause during calls of support from the Opposition.

“At the risk of getting my knuckles rapped, as a Government we need to listen to what the people are saying,” Ms Scott continued.

The public was calling on legislators to hear them, she said, adding: “People don’t get up and march just because they want to. They’re saying, ‘I need for you to hear me; I am hurting, I have a voice and I want you to listen’.”

Her remarks came after several Progressive Labour Party MPs urged the Government to recognise the suspicions that surround “piecemeal” amendments to immigration.

“It is an emotive issue, and I think we ought to talk about why,” PLP MP Jamahl Simmons said, telling the House that the Island’s debate on immigration had failed to progress from the 1950s.

“The arguments are the same,” Mr Simmons said, adding that MPs back then had argued for more people to come in and bolster Bermuda’s economy.

“It has been shown historically that it is the back-door route to cement political power, cement economic power, and entrench powers that have been in rule since the first boat pulled up on our shores,” he continued.

“This is an emotive issue for many people because they have seen this movie before.

“They have seen the process of our history where the same arguments are made by essentially the same people — or their children, or their children’s children.”

While the Opposition supported aspects of the Bill, Mr Simmons said comprehensive reform was needed, as collaboration would “take some of the emotiveness and some of the trust deficit out of the immigration debate”.

Cole Simons, the OBA Whip, stressed that “the PLP and the OBA have different philosophies, and we believe in different strategies in turning this economy around”, while OBA MP Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said the Island’s situation was too urgent to “sit around and wait for comprehensive immigration reform”.

Ms Scott’s remarks, which came next, came with a plea to “stop practising personal battles and vendettas against each other”.

“People are tired of hearing, ‘oh, it’s the PLP’s fault’,” she said. “We have gone past that ... we have been in Government for 2½ years and we need to come up with some viable solutions.”

Calling the standard of parliamentary debate “embarrassing” and “humiliating”, Ms Scott said that young people were jaded with politics.

“Yes, the Westminster system is divisive. We can be different,” she said.

After returning to support the Act, Ms Scott broke down in tears, telling MPs: “We don’t have a lot of time.”

She apologised for “getting emotional and getting off track, but I had to speak what was on my heart”.

Later, during the Motion to Adjourn, she was commended by David Burt, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who added: “It is great to see someone from the backbench of the Government actually get up and speak from the heart.

“I sympathise with the honourable Member because I heard the incredible pressure and strain that she was under.”

Mr Burt told the Government: “Don’t discipline her.

“Let it prick your conscience, and understand that you do not have unlimited power.”

He added that recent disputes that had roiled Parliament, including his own expulsion from Parliament on March 13, could be traced back to what he described as OBA intransigence to calls for a joint select committee on immigration reform.

“All these distractions came from that one instance of OBA obstinance,” he said.