CHIEF Minister Mike Torode is too busy after all to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown – but he won’t say why. He is the only Crown Dependency leader who will not be at the British-Irish Council meeting on Monday and is sending his deputy, Stuart Falla.

Even Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who has recently had a heart operation, is expected to be there.

Instead of attending the gathering at Stormont, Belfast, Deputy Torode, who has never met Mr Brown, claims he has a crucial meeting that cannot be postponed.

By contrast, Jersey Chief Minister Frank Walker said it was ‘an opportunity that simply cannot be missed’.

And former chief minister Laurie Morgan said that if he were in Deputy Torode’s position, he would want to be there.

The chief minister was critical of Wednesday’s Guernsey Press headline that said he was too busy to meet the PM. He hinted that he might withhold information from the newspaper’s journalists.

‘It’s certainly not, ﾓoh, to hell with Gordon Brown, I’m a busy chapﾔ,’ he told BBC Guernsey.

‘I would far sooner be able to get there rather than send my deputy chief minister, but my deputy chief minister is a very competent and capable man and he can represent Guernsey’s views without any problem at all.

‘The crucial meeting I have got on Monday would mean the rearrangement of nine people’s diaries, including people off-island, and it is not possible to do that.

‘Therefore, my deputy chief minister will be going on my behalf.

‘I believe the meeting is going to be a review of where the British-Irish Council has gone to date and where it can go in the future.’

Deputy Morgan said: ‘In his position, I would certainly wish to be at the British-Irish Council meeting because I attended every one as chief minister.

‘I was the only one from any jurisdiction who had attended all of them – but that is past history.

‘As I understand it, there is a very important meeting taking place on Monday that the chief minister is committed to and he was only given a couple of days’ notice.’

Deputy Falla was happy to stand in, but did not expect much opportunity to talk to Mr Brown.

‘These things usually have a set agenda,’ he said.’The topic is likely to be surrounding the re-establishment of self-government in Northern Ireland, but it is an opportunity for Guernsey as a member of the council to attend.

‘It’s not an open agenda, but it is always good to take this opportunity to be seen.’

Senator Walker said: ‘The official agenda will focus on specific topics, but the main interest from my perspective is the opportunity to have a meeting and a discussion with the new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and hopefully begin to establish a relationship with him so that we can maintain an awareness of Jersey in his mind and his thinking. I did not expect the opportunity at this early stage in his premiership.

‘Hopefully, we can continue to cement further the burgeoning relationship between us and the UK Government.

n The council was formed as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to focus on policy areas in which the UK administrations and members, including Ireland, the UK, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, should cooperate.