The United Bermuda Party is inviting PLP MP Wayne Perinchief to work with it in a bid to change the "double jeopardy" rule.

Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt accused Mr. Perinchief of "political posturing", when he said that he was hopeful that Bermuda would follow the lead of the British Government when they end the double jeopardy rule which prevents suspects from being retried twice for the same offence.

Mr. Perinchief's comments were reported in yesterday's edition of The Royal Gazette.

He said that having to introduce the House debate of the Report of the Serious Crimes Commission - which looked into the Rebecca Middleton murder investigation and botched prosecution - was his biggest disappointment in his political career.

And he said that plans by Britain to change the law which protects people from being tried twice for the same offence offered a "limited opportunity" to reopen the case.

"While we in the Opposition welcome the comments of PLP backbencher Wayne Perinchief, and are pleased that he has come around to the position we advanced in the debate on the report of the Serious Crimes Commission, the record of Mr. Perinchief and the Government to date suggests to us that they do not take very seriously the role they ought to be fulfilling as the elected leaders of Bermuda," wrote Mr. Barritt.

He cites the fact that the debate itself was delayed for eight months after being tabled by Mr. Perinchief in November 2000. "Any disappointment and regret of his wasn't half as great as that of the Opposition and a good many people in Bermuda who were never given any explanation for his failure to take up the report for almost nine months."

And when the debate did take place "we heard no clarion call from Mr. Perinchief or any other member of the Government for a re-examination of the double jeopardy rule," he says.

"Government failed to even publish a checklist of the recommendations and the Government position on each one so that everyone would know where they the Government stood and what they as Government intended to do."

Mr. Barritt continued : "Here we now are, well over a year after the report was made public, and Mr. Perinchief is reported as saying that he hopes Bermuda's legislators will follow Britain's lead. As a member of the PLP, he is in a position to influence his colleagues, who are the Government, to actually do something. It doesn't require hope, it requires action, and work. However if Mr. Perinchief finds insufficient support among his colleagues, we wish to assure him publicly that we in the Opposition will be happy to join hands with him on this issue and make change happen.

"For the record, we said at the time we were more than prepared to reconsider the double jeopardy rule and follow Britain's lead. It seems to us a reasonable proposition that where new and compelling evidence comes to light after a trial, we should follow the same principle as a person who has been wrongly convicted and allow for a retrial."

Mr. Perinchief could not be reached for a response by press time. His comments were made in the context of a wide-ranging interview in which he was asked essentially to give a frank evaluation of his performance and experience as a politician.

Among the first time parliamentarian's other comments was an admission to some frustration at having his hands tied as a backbencher by the party political process.

He told The Royal Gazette that while he believed his party had many legislative successes, he would have preferred it if he had had a freer hand in handling the Serious Crimes Commission report.

He reminded The Royal Gazette that the "Middleton affair" happened on "the other watch".

"I had to be careful that it's post facto," he said. "And it's okay just stirring up old bones if we are going to just politicise the matter. But it's come to the point now where as a Government member I prefer to put issues like that to rest if I don't think it's going to be constructive. I still think there's a limited opportunity to reopen that inquiry - keeping in mind that the double jeopardy principle may actually change in England."

And pressed further as to why the debate was a disappointment he said "I mean you're dealing with a dead issue. And here you are not being able to attack it the way I wanted to - having to wait for legislation to pass, having to wait for other things to fall into place that were not under my control. As a backbencher there's a natural level of frustration. Basically you have to come under collective responsibility of the party - to do things in a certain way and to do things under the parameters the party expects. I would have said much more if I had the ability to do so."