Robert King, freshly deposed as Leader of the Opposition, described a sense of hurt and deception among members of the One Bermuda Alliance who supported his leadership bid against Ben Smith last September.

Mr King, who said he was told only on Wednesday that a group of fellow MPs signed a letter of no confidence that was delivered to the Governor, said he remained deeply stung by the move but added: “Some of the emotion I am experiencing will be put into getting the job done. I’m going to park it in a healthy place.”

Mr King, who became MP for Smith’s North (Constituency 10) in a 2024 by-election and technically remains leader of the OBA despite being pushed out as Opposition leader, spoke to The Royal Gazette ahead of a party caucus meeting tonight that he said might prove boisterous.

He said if there was appetite for keeping him as leader of the party, supporters would “get the opportunity to be heard”.

Asked about the party’s future, he said: “I’ll answer it this way: the membership voted in a leadership election according to the constitution, in full knowledge of what each candidate brought.

“A process was utilised to make a decision about leadership that did not include the membership.

“As I said previously, many who voted, party supporters and donors, have expressed outrage and feeling betrayed.”

Earlier, Mr King spoke more bluntly on the mood in the OBA over members’ feelings about the overturning of a leadership contest that he said enjoyed a formidable turnout after the previous Opposition leader, Jarion Richardson, stepped down from the role.

“They are pissed,” he said. “They are absolutely pissed, and they have expressed that they feel betrayed.”

Mr King said he felt he had been selected as a change-maker, as “somebody who is new to politics, who was successful in a by-election running against Sir John Swan, Bermuda’s longest-serving premier, and Lindsay Simmons [of the Progressive Labour Party], doing the same thing again in the General Election and then running for the leadership”.

“What they saw and what they know about me — they looked at all that and said, you know what? We believe Robert King and the people he has with him, inside the party and outside, is exactly what this party needs.

“We’re talking about young and old members of the party, persons you would expect ordinarily to be satisfied with the status quo.

“Those were the people who asked me to run.”

He said they had taken “the courageous step of voting for change”.

“I’m for ever in their debt for them doing that.”

Mr King added: “I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t affected me and Miriam and my family and friends, because we entered politics, public service at this level, to do more for the community.

“In terms of how we arrived here, there’s great disappointment on my part for that. It hurts; of course it does, because one would expect that the values and tenets of our constitution would be applied fairly and appropriately.”

Mr King conceded there had been a striking turnout of the OBA membership on the night of September 6 last year, with a buzz of excitement over the leadership vote.

“Then we had the result go the way that it did,” he said. “When the names of the winners were read out, even that process was unusual. Normally there’s a celebration, regardless of the winner.”

That night, he admitted, there “appeared to be a division”.

The count for the vote, in which he defeated Mr Smith, the deputy leader and Shadow Minister of Education and Sport — who was sworn in this week as Opposition leader upon Mr King’s removal — was not shared with the media.

Mr King said he was not told, either.

“We also didn’t know what the numbers were, in a transparent election. So on the surface, it appeared to be a bit unusual.”

The Gazette understands the margin to have been slim, reportedly at 17 votes.

According to a party source familiar with Mr King’s campaign, the new leader faced immediately resistance from several MPs.

He acknowledged this week that the victory announcement changed the mood of the night.

“There was this different energy — I attributed it to the change in leadership, people adjusting to the transition. I thought it was nothing more than that.”

He said he set straight to work on his 100-day plan, and likened his first 30 days to a term of probation in which “we made some decisions and changed some decisions”.

Asked about pushback from colleagues, he said: “In terms of the smoothness of the transition, of the ease, there was some resistance. I would say that. And that lasted a bit longer than anticipated.”

Mr King took his time responding to a question on whether the MPs who froze him out were the same seven who signed the letter of no confidence this week.

“Let’s just say that it would not be a stretch,” he said.

He maintained he initially took resistance from colleagues to be disappointment among supporters of the other candidate, but added: “Clearly, along the way, it morphed into something else.”

Mr King was upbeat about getting on now with colleagues who had gone against him, saying that “the overarching duty remains the same; my role in the organisation stays the same”. He conceded “the relationship and how it operates is going to be different”.

Mr Smith, in an interview with ZBM, declined to characterise Mr King’s removal as a coup.

Asked for his view, Mr King said he had been carrying on with party business, “meeting and interacting with persons, and then I found out on Wednesday — what would you call that process?”

He added: “You find out that very next day — you’re called into a meeting and you’re told this. I don’t know; I’ve never been in this before. What’s appropriate?”

In the wake of his removal as leader, Mr King said he would move on with his work as MP.

“Politics is about serving the people. That’s the simple part. Navigating the internal dynamics, that’s not my focus.”

However he added: “I am disappointed that we have arrived here, when we have got so many other issues of national importance.”