The row over former Premier Jennifer Smith being given a three-month rent free stay at her official residence continued yesterday when the Opposition flatly rejected Government claims that this was based on precedent.

Premier Alex Scott said the decision to allow Ms Smith to stay rent-free at The Laurels for up to three months after she was deposed followed a precedent set when United Bermuda Party (UBP) Premier Pamela Gordon lost the November 9, 1998, election.

Communications and Information Services said yesterday Government papers showed Ms Gordon, who lived at a private resident in Tamarind Vale, was approved for the three month allowance after losing the election, but it was not paid due to an unexplained "administrative error".

UBP leader Dr. Grant Gibbons said Ms Gordon was paid a rental allowance in advance for November, but was told to re-pay the money from November 10 - the day after she lost the election. He told The Royal Gazette: "It is up to the Bermudian public as to whether they think the taxpayer should pay the rent of a former Premier for three months.

"Premier Scott is misstating the facts when he says there was a precedent set by the last UBP outgoing premier (to stay rent-free) for no longer than three months.

"There was clearly no precedent set there. There was a very different set of circumstances.

"In 1998, Pamela Gordon was in a private property at Tamarind Vale, which she held a lease on. It was not a government property like The Laurels is. Pamela Gordon was voted a housing allowing by Cabinet. That was paid in advance, and the last housing cheque was in October 1998 (for November 1998).

"On November 16, 1998, one week after the general election, Jennifer Smith caused a letter to be written to Miss Gordon requesting a refund of the housing allowance pro-rated for November. It requested a refund of the allowance that was paid in October for November to refunded with effect from November 10 to the end of November. All this was done with the concurrence of Mr. Scott as Works and Engineering Minister.

"There was no precedent set (for a three month rent-free period). She was asked to refund the money paid in October from November 10 on.

"This idea of a precedent being set of a three month grace period is absolute nonsense. It is simply not the facts. "There was no allowance paid to Pamela Gordon by the PLP government in 1998 after the November 9 election. If the current PLP Government under Mr. Scott would like to set a policy, they should make the decisions themselves, and not try to spin it out or hide behind what happened in 1998 because there was clearly no precedent set then.

"We operate under the Westminster system and it is custom and practice when there is a change of government that the offices be vacated the day after the election."

The Department of Communications and Information statement released to The Royal Gazette yesterday said: "The Government confirms that based on their records, former Premier the honourable Pamela Gordon received a rental allowance for three months after the end of her tenure and this was the precedent on which the Premier, the honourable Alex Scott, based his decision to allow the now former Premier Jennifer Smith to remain in the government property until October 25.

"Through an administrative error, the former Premier (Pamela Gordon) did not receive the funds."

The DCI spokeswoman was unable to say what the "administrative error" was.

When contacted last night, Ms Gordon would only say: "I never received any rental allowance after the November 1998 election."