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While not naming anyone, People’s Leadership Movement (PLM) leader Mark Vanterpool warned against attempts to divide the Virgin Islands, declaring that voters with ancestral ties and those who have made the Territory their home are one people.
His remarks at a PLM event in Sea Cows Bay on Saturday evening, October 17, came on the heels of political commentator Claude Skelton Cline’s comments that the premiership should be reserved for a Virgin Islander by ancestry.
Vanterpool did not directly address that position or discuss ancestral qualifications for the premiership, but emphasised the shared identity of people from different backgrounds on the voters list.
“There are those who are out there trying hard to divide us, trying to make us different people in their minds,” he said.
“Our commitment remains clear. We are telling you our motto is that we here in the Virgin Islands, we know that we are one people.”
Earlier this month, Skelton Cline said he had told Vanterpool before the National Democratic Party’s internal elections in April that he would not support his ambition to become Premier.
Skelton Cline described his objection as a matter of principle rather than competence, arguing that the office should be preserved for someone with ancestral ties through either parent. According to his account, he told Vanterpool that he did not fit that category.
At Saturday’s event, Vanterpool highlighted an electorate drawn from across the BVI and almost every Caribbean island, including indigenous Virgin Islanders, people with ancestral roots and those who had settled in the Territory.
“On the voters list are people who come from everywhere that have come to make these islands our home,” he stated.
“For that we say, PLM motto, one people, with one purpose, with one future.”
His remarks at a PLM event in Sea Cows Bay on Saturday evening, October 17, came on the heels of political commentator Claude Skelton Cline’s comments that the premiership should be reserved for a Virgin Islander by ancestry.
Vanterpool did not directly address that position or discuss ancestral qualifications for the premiership, but emphasised the shared identity of people from different backgrounds on the voters list.
“There are those who are out there trying hard to divide us, trying to make us different people in their minds,” he said.
“Our commitment remains clear. We are telling you our motto is that we here in the Virgin Islands, we know that we are one people.”
Earlier this month, Skelton Cline said he had told Vanterpool before the National Democratic Party’s internal elections in April that he would not support his ambition to become Premier.
Skelton Cline described his objection as a matter of principle rather than competence, arguing that the office should be preserved for someone with ancestral ties through either parent. According to his account, he told Vanterpool that he did not fit that category.
At Saturday’s event, Vanterpool highlighted an electorate drawn from across the BVI and almost every Caribbean island, including indigenous Virgin Islanders, people with ancestral roots and those who had settled in the Territory.
“On the voters list are people who come from everywhere that have come to make these islands our home,” he stated.
“For that we say, PLM motto, one people, with one purpose, with one future.”
© 2026 BVI Platinum News. This article is original BVI Platinum content. Reproduction or republication without written permission is prohibited.
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