The Premier's Press Secretary has been urged to stay out of politics after he launched a public attack on the United Bermuda Party.

Glenn Jones, who was appointed to the $102,000 publicly-funded post earlier this year, had voiced concern about the Opposition raising objections to specific voters on the electoral roll. He did so at an impromptu press conference on Wednesday where he appeared to indicate he was speaking in a personal capacity.

However Opposition leader Michael Dunkley said: "I don't buy that. Glenn Jones speaks as the Press secretary for the Premier. That conference was held at Cabinet Office grounds. If he was speaking as individual I would have thought it would be somewhere out on the street.

"Or if he was speaking on behalf of the PLP I would have thought it would be at their headquarters. Clearly this gentlemen has a hard time understanding the realm and scope of his responsibilities."

Mr. Dunkley said the use of political appointments at the taxpayer's expense raised grave concerns. "We supported the appointment of Mr. Jones as press secretary to the Premier because he was someone who brought a wealth of knowledge and provided the resources and experience the Premier needed, that any Premier would need.

"However we have become concerned now with things like this. Clearly we see this as a political move and we don't, in any way, support the comments."

Mr. Jones said he had gone public because most people wouldn't be aware of their names being published at the back of a newspaper notifying them they risked being booted off the electoral roll. He said: "I am trying to bring attention to it because if those folks don't deal with this they will be challenged on election day. No one should have to face that."

Mr. Jones said if the UBP's true aim was to merely make sure people voted in the right place they would have made more noise about it. "I would have thought they would have done everything in their power to draw attention to their list."

Mr. Jones declined to explain why, if he wanted to give the issue more publicity, he had chosen only two TV stations when originally making the allegations while bypassing The Royal Gazette who were at the scene but not made aware of the impromptu press conference which happened after Dale Butler's statement on charities not filing accounts.

But Mr. Jones conceded the final list published came from the Parliamentary Registrar, who was tasked to investigate, not the UBP. Mr. Jones stressed he was not a civil servant but a political appointment.

It is thought Mr. Jones was appointed under a 1983 act allowing the Premier and Opposition leaders to appoint personal staff paid for out of the public purse but separate from the Civil Service.

Asked if he would be making more political attacks he said: "I don't know, this was opportunistic. I didn't know it (the list) would be in the newspaper.

"I saw it in the newspaper on Wednesday morning. I was curious, did some research and I thought I should say something about it. It's not like a strategy change."

Mr. Jones said he had volunteered to go out front because, although the Premier was on the island, he had a busy schedule.

Asked yesterday if he was speaking on behalf of the Premier he said: "Yes, whenever I address the media on an issue of what we do I am the Premier's spokesperson but yesterday's words were my own. I guess I am asking to have it both ways."