New United Bermuda Party leader Wayne Furbert says he wants to keep his predecessor Grant Gibbons on the front bench.

Some MPs feared Dr. Gibbons, who has held the finance portfolio for years, would resign after being dumped by party colleagues at the weekend.

But Mr. Furbert told said the pair had been in talks.

He said: ?Grant is a very valuable asset to the party. He will continue in the party and continue as an MP.?

Mr. Furbert said he had been meeting with colleagues and was likely to announce any changes next week. Last night Dr. Gibbons declined to comment on the matter.

Almost 40 percent of participants in a snap online poll say that Wayne Furbert is the right choice as leader of the United Bermuda Party.

But the unscientific poll also showed that almost a third of respondents were not sure when when asked: ?Is Wayne Furbert the right person to lead the United Bermuda Party??

In the poll on www.theroyalgazette.com, 39.3 percent of the 601 respondents said Mr. Furbert was the right person, 28.3 percent said ?no? and 32.4 percent said they did not know.

The poll ran from Monday until yesterday afternoon.

The survey is not scientific because it does not break down the poll by the demographics used to accurately reflect the population. Users are, however, prevented from answering the poll more than once from the same computer.