An unprecedented challenge thrown down in the House of Assembly by Progressive Labour Party Leader Marc Bean ignited a storm of accusations and return fire from MPs across the House.

Marc Bean, when asked why Mr Cannonier would divulge personal details about his financial affairs to him “He was desperate. They are afraid of the truth and for 16 months it has been falsehoods and deception.”

Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell: “I am disappointed that was allowed to be said in this House. I don’t think things can get any more ridiculous and insane.”

Shadow Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert: “I am hoping he gets a call tonight and it says ‘Your time is up’. We have come to a point in our history where the trust this country has in our government has to be corrected — if you want to last 14 months, the honourable Premier needs to resign and put the honourable member who is really the leader of the party in place. The time has come for you to restore trust in the Government.”

Attorney General Mark Pettingill: “I know supporters of the Opposition leader, whatever he says, they’re going to say ‘There you go — that’s it!’”

Shadow Health Minister Zane DeSilva: “I submit that the OBA made their own bed by their campaigns of corruption allegations. You made that bed. You’re going to lie on it.”

Community Affairs Minister Wayne Scott: “In this House you are protected — you can say whatever you want, even if it’s a lie, and you have immunity. Outside this House you don’t.

Shadow Finance Minister David Burt: “Today has been disappointing for me and disappointing for the people of this country. I agree that the losers are the people of this country and they are the losers because of Government’s actions. We only have to go back 14 months to look at the broken promises of this Government. If the whole exercise of attracting development is tainted by corruption, tainted by pay-to-play, then the people of this country lose. It is time for the Premier of this country to step aside because there is far too much that is going on that is beginning to taint the reputation of this country and for people to question what is going on. There’s a trust deficit in this country.”

PLP MP Rolfe Commissiong: “December 13 is a day of political infamy. The Premier again needs to come clean on this issue and he is steadfastly refusing to do so and that does not bode well for the country.”

Shadow Minister for Legal Affairs Kim Wilson: “I think that when I leave the realm of politics I will write a book. It will be a best-seller because some of the episodes that are unfolding here seem surreal. Truth is stranger than fiction. My constituents are saying, are they really being taken for granted. Don’t take us for fools and don’t insult our intelligence. We have seen what has unfolded and I ask this Government, don’t take us for granted and make us believe we were born yesterday because we don’t believe you and we don’t trust you.”

Education and Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons: “The Opposition has tried to imply that Cabinet and Government was looking for a way to get out of a referendum. That is categorically not true. Up until December 12, Cabinet was fully on board with doing a referendum, no ifs, ands or buts. I think the Opposition leader discovered he was caught out and decided that the best way to cover his tracks was to reveal what he did this afternoon, but it doesn’t make sense. Not only was the premier there, there were two witnesses and clearly there’s no way to corroborate the story, so the issue as far as I’m concerned is we have an Opposition leader looking for a way out.”

Works & Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon Pamplin: “The information that came to us gave me cause to believe that there was an orchestrated effort to undermine the process and so, on December 12 the decision was made that we would not go through with the referendum.

Finance Minister Bob Richards, referring to an invitation by Mr Bean in March 2013 to drop the referendum: “I took it to be a political trap and I said so to my colleagues. If we went with that we would be really silly because they [the PLP] would change on a dime and nail us on that. So we were determined to hold a referendum up to December 12, despite what the Opposition leader said. I think it is outrageous, the melodrama that has played out here this afternoon. We have Bermudians who are looking for work and Bermudians who are in debt and a country that is in a huge amount of debt and industries that are failing and I don’t think one scintilla of what has been said by the Opposition today will help those problems.”