Betrayed. That was how Jamahl Simmons summed up his treatment at the hands of former friends as his promising but brief UBP career exploded amid a mass of accusations.

Let down by the leadership and forsaken by his former running mate was how he characterised the bitter three-year fight to keep his seat.

Now his challenger Erwin Adderley stands to gain as Mr. Simmons leaves yet another party.

Asked about his feelings towards his former colleague, Mr. Simmons typically didn?t mince his words when he spoke to the following yesterday?s incendiary press conference.

?I personally feel betrayed because this was a guy who served as my running mate. He didn?t have the decency to call me up and say ?You are not doing the job, so I am going to challenge you?.

?I think it speaks a lot about him and his character that his supporters could carry on and he hasn?t said anything or done anything about it.?

Mr. Simmons claimed a civil servant was threatened she would be exposed as a party member and fired while her husband, who does not work for Government, was also threatened with the sack ? a charge the Adderley faction deny.

?Anybody who supported me and did anything like that would not be tolerated,? said Mr. Simmons.

?At the end of the day, if they feel he can do a better job than me then I wish him the best.?

Asked why the leadership couldn?t have been given time to investigate the claims, Mr. Simmons said he was sick of having to continually fight people who should have been supporting him.

?They mounted a challenge, it was defeated. They have come back again. It would have been defeated. They were not interested in stopping.

?There was no one saying ?Look you guys, this is getting absolutely ridiculous?. You got the polls saying this guy can?t beat me, you?ve got the membership saying this guy can?t beat me.

?They would have dragged it on and on and on. They were getting worse.

?I don?t care if it is rumour or innuendo, if someone told me someone under my authority was threatening somebody, I would have dealt with it. Even it was a matter of saying stern words.

?The message was sent very clearly that you folks can do what you like. And if you happen to pull it off you will be welcomed and embraced and everything will be all right.

?I can?t conceive of any party allowing this to happen. But to happen twice and nothing happen??

Asked why he couldn?t fight on if he was only dealing with a vocal minority, he said: ?The straw that broke the camel?s back was that my people were being threatened and nothing was being done about it.

?I have the numbers, I could have beaten them if I wanted to. You saw the numbers, they had about 20 people there.

?The issue is a matter of principle. It?s not worth me sitting up there in Parliament and people are being threatened and nothing is being done about it. I was not willing to pay that price.?

Opponents had spent the past three years doing whatever they could to get rid of him, said Mr. Simmons.

?What I saw was a fight that needed to be waged outside of that organisation. I think maybe they are in need of a short, sharp shock. They are in denial.

?It is very difficult to go into black people?s houses and say we are the United Bermuda Party ? we have a great plan and they say ?Look at what these people are doing to you. How can I support that? And look what they are doing to the people around you??

?What can you say to that? How can you tell people it?s great and wonderful when it?s really not reality.?

Full of praise for his parliamentary colleagues, Mr. Simmons said the commitment was not shared by the wider party infrastructure.

Asked how widespread the race problem was, he said: ?If you look at the facts, they were allowed to threaten individuals on more than one occasion and then were allowed to take positions of leadership and authority within the party with no consequences, without even a formal chastisement.

?It sends a very clear message there is one set of rules for one set of people and a different set of rules for others.

?As far as I am concerned these are a bunch of nitwits who still think it?s 1835. I can handle them. It?s the way they have been allowed to act with impunity. ?That?s what I have a problem with. What the United Bermuda Party must come to grips with is why they lost the election. They have to understand why they are unable to attract black members to the infrastructure.

?They do a very good job of recruiting candidates. But a better job needs to be done to diversify the grass-roots because that is the group that validates the platform, elects the officers and steers the ship.?

His constituency was diverse in class and race but that had not been seen in the party?s membership, runs the argument.

?It?s more like a country club atmosphere were you make room for people but there?s not a real interest in ?Let?s go out and get some black chairmen? or ?Let?s go out and get some black secretaries ? let?s go out there and beat the ground?.

?It shows a fundamental lack of understanding ? if you go to most countries, political parties try to embrace the wider community.?

Asked how a group backing another black candidate could be labelled racist, he said: ?When they say things like ?he is more acceptable to us, that he used to drink and socialise with us?.

?There are coded message which have been sent very clearly to me. People in the party know and see it for what it is.

?They couldn?t find one black person to support them. In a constituency which is 60 percent black and there are at least 20 or 30 black members of the UBP. That speaks volumes.?

He will miss Pembroke West ? if not some of its UBP members. ?I love the area, I had a great time,? he said.

And he claimed he had beaten Erwin Adderley by 20 points in a poll. ?It?s a safer seat with me ? less so with others.

Mr. Simmons admits his personal health problems have helped bring his political problems to a head after he was diagnosed as having a blood clot in his lungs.

?If the doctor hadn?t found out, I would have died. It put things in a very different perspective. I may have a little less patience with some of the foolishness I might have put up with.?

Interestingly, Mr. Simmons didn?t rule out joining the PLP when pressed about it yesterday.

?I have been through a lot over the past month. When you lay in a hospital bed hooked up to a bunch of switches and buzzers and the doctor says you are lucky you didn?t die, it puts things in perspective.

?I have always felt politics should not be a lifetime thing. Working for the people should be. I am sure I will find something to do with my time. My focus right now is taking care of other issues.?

It might be his parliamentary swansong for now but for someone with a self-confessed love of politics the idea of Jamahl Simmons remaining silent for long seems unlikely.

Indeed at his press conference he released a list of policy items he backed.

They included a Landlord/Tenant Bill of Rights making it tougher to evict or exploit good tenants, a mandatory diversity and cultural sensitivity programmes for all new guest workers and the introduction of an English language proficiency test for guest workers in positions that involve working with the public.

Other policies included a financial literacy programme for primary school kids to learn how to make their money grow, the expansion of the Corporation electoral franchise and legislation to protect the right of parents to attend school functions without fear of being penalised by employers.

Asked why he was putting out a platform as he prepared to stand down, he said: ?I think I have a lot to offer the country ? although I can?t say as an elder statesman, as I am not that old yet. There are issues that still need to be raised and I don?t have to be in parliament to do it.?

Asked if he would be interested in a new political grouping, he said: ?My real focus is about finishing my term.?

He said that historically Bermudians had not been interested in third parties.

?It?s hard to support another entity when neither of (the other two) look like they are dying or going anywhere.?