Last night you heard Youth and Defense Minister Cordel Hyde lay down the hard line on who's with and not with the 'New PUP,' and Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca is definitely not invited to the new blue's party. Well, 7NEWS has learnt that the same 'Old PUP' is pushing for Hyde and Espat to be removed from any PUP. That's right, Fonseca and those close to him, including ministers, have reportedly signaled to the Prime Minister and Party Leader Said Musa that Ministers Hyde and Espat should be suspended if not flat out expelled from the party.
But, it's not as easy as that. The Prime Minister has empowered Espat as Minister with responsibility for debt re-profiling, government's absolute #1 priority, a process that is set to begin imminently. Also, having had both ministers hurling bombs from the backbenches before, politically, it's surely not an appealing prospect to the Prime Minister to have them return to that openly belligerent position.
But whatever the choice turns out to be, today was the first day of this week on which neither side publicly escalated the hostilities. And, at this point, any interim truce or seemliness of stability is a success for the Prime Minister.
