DEPUTY Rhoderick Matthews will not be handing over the list of names of those who supported his bid to delay the implementation of zero-10. ‘I hope that there will be no one so distrusting of my integrity that they will make a call for it.

‘I am waiting for someone to insist for me to do it. I wouldn’t want to waste the time of the Bailiff, who is the most appropriate person to give the correspondence to.’

He is standing by what he said in the States last week and insists that if Treasury minister Lyndon Trott wants to meet those people – as was offered in the debate – then he should use his director of communications to publicise and set up a one-off public meeting.

Housing minister Dave Jones, who pressed Deputy Matthews in the States to provide evidence of the names to Deputy Trott, said it would be in Deputy Matthews’ and the States’ best interests to see the correspondence.

‘There were comments being made around the chamber that the numbers were not correct, but I have no idea if that was true,’ said Deputy Jones.

‘I think the reasonable thing for him to do is to let someone independent look at the evidence and to see if he misled the House.

‘If Deputy Matthews used those responses as evidence to back up his argument in the States, then why would he not want to share the information with others?’

Deputy Matthews claimed in the States that he had collected 500 names from an advertisement placed in the Guernsey Press supporting his amendment to delay zero-10.

‘Hundreds of people gave me their names and if someone insists on having the Bailiff count the exact number, I think they are being foolish,’ he said yesterday.

Deputy Matthews also felt last week’s debate, which saw members of the House walk out during his speech and Chief Minister Mike Torode suggest on Channel News that he should consider his position, raised some serious questions about the way senior members of the States behaved.

‘If you can’t express opposition without the chief minister asking you to consider your position, then I think it’s disgraceful.’

Deputy Matthews said he took back nothing that he had said in the debate, during which he criticised Treasury and Resources, and that his quest to delay zero-10 by a year was not electioneering.

‘If electioneering means doing what large numbers of the public want, then you can call it that, but I think it’s doing your job.’

Deputy Trott declined to comment.