Former Cabinet Minister Renée Webb is to stand down at the next election.

Ms Webb, a former Telecommunications and Tourism Minister, scraped in at the last election in St. George’s South by eight votes but she predicted the Progressive Labour Party would easily hold the seat and turf the Opposition out of many of its 14 seats this time around.

“I would guess the UBP would get between eight to ten seats.”

She said PLP were stronger while the UBP was in disarray and wasn’t attracting the right calibre of candidates.

Talking exclusively to The Royal Gazette yesterday she said: “I am not running. I was never running another term. I am in my 15th year of politics and I have been everything I have ever wanted to be.

“I just want to do other things with my life.”

She said she had only ever planned to serve two terms but had been talked into staying for another by former Premier Jennifer Smith.

Ms Webb, who was first elected in Hamilton Parish in 1993, was re-elected in the 1998 PLP landslide but she blamed her narrow win in St. George’s South (Constituency Four) in 2003 on being selected only three weeks before the poll in the first election under the redrawn single member constituencies.

“I didn’t get to canvass. I didn’t go to St. George’s at all. I went to Southside but there were 500 people I never saw at all.”

She said 400 voters from her old Hamilton Parish seat carried her through.

“I keep telling people, I only needed one to win, I don’t know what the thing is about the eight. Quite frankly the PLP is in very good stead right now. Under the stewardship of Ewart Brown the party will go from strength to strength.”

She said there were a slew of strong candidates wanting to stand and there were three or four strong options as her replacement in St. George’s South. “Either one of them will win. They are good people from the area — high profile.”

She said the St. George’s parish will be a key battleground with all the seats won or lost by 25 or fewer votes.

Asked about the UBP’s likely candidate in constituency four, Donte Hunt, she said: “I haven’t even heard of him. You cannot send a complete unknown down there and expect to win.” She predicted Premier Ewart Brown would call the election soon. Ms Webb was a controversial figure in the PLP Government, famously walking out of Alex Scott’s Cabinet in 2004 after accusing him of sexism.

Since being on the backbenchers she tried to steer a law through outlawing discrimination against homosexuals but it failed to get sufficient support.

|0x95|See the>Royal Gazette on Monday for in an-depth interview with Renée Webb.