A political skirmish has broken out after parliamentary questions regarding the island’s closed and restricted job categories in which Bermudian workers are favoured over labour from overseas.

Jarion Richardson, the Leader of the Opposition, posed a series of questions in the House of Assembly on Friday to Jason Hayward, the economy and labour minister.

A Progressive Labour Party statement later accused the One Bermuda Alliance of a “seeming push” during the questions to “open up closed or restricted job categories that were originally instituted by the PLP to protect jobs and opportunities for Bermudians”.

The Opposition responded: “It is completely untrue that the OBA were seeking to open or close particular categories.”

The party said it had conducted ordinary parliamentary questions and called on the public to review the online recording.

Mr Richardson questioned the minister on Friday on the basis of a statement in May that the island’s unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest level in 40 years.

The Opposition leader noted that Mr Hayward had extended the moratorium on work permits for a series of jobs that same month, and asked why.

The moratorium on 46 closed categories and 11 restricted categories, which had been set to expire, was extended until August 31.

On the floor of the House, Mr Hayward responded: “I continued the restriction on closed and restricted job categories to protect jobs for Bermudians.”

Mr Richardson asked about criteria taken into account for restrictions and Mr Hayward cited the employment surveys carried out by the Department of Statistics.

He added: “The employment brief clearly indicates Bermudians and non-Bermudians in each job category.”

Mr Hayward said there were jobs with 90 per cent Bermudian employment, and where Bermudians were “willing, able and capable of doing that particular job”.

He told MPs he was “fairly confident those job categories should remain closed”.

The minister also fielded queries from Mr Richardson on work-permit policy.

An unattributed PLP statement later that day accused the Opposition of seeking to change the restriction, adding that the ruling party was “deeply concerned by this approach, especially given the OBA’s track record during their time in Government”.

The statement said that non-Bermudian jobs rose while Bermudian employment fell during the OBA administration.

The former government was accused of breaking a promise to “reform, not scrap, term limits”, referring to the six-year limit on most work permits imposed in 2001 by an earlier PLP administration.

The OBA dropped term limits early in 2013, instead of following through on a two-year suspension of the policy while a review was carried out, with Michael Fahy, then the home affairs minister, calling the policy a job killer.

The PLP also attacked the OBA for a proposal to enable the children of guest workers to work on the island ‒ although the idea never went beyond the drawing board.

The statement closed by accusing the party of an “anti-Bermudian approach”, and said the OBA appeared to push for non-Bermudians to compete in closed job categories.

The Opposition hit back that it was “deeply disturbed” by the statement and added: “It’s one thing for the PLP to put out a statement to refute a policy claim, but it’s another to just make up an outrageous lie to suit the PLP’s political narrative.”

It added: “How was the PLP able to draw this conclusion?

“All the OBA did was ask questions of labour minister, the Honourable Jason Hayward, and receive vague and defensive responses in return.”

The statement directed the public to check the Hansard recording from late Friday morning on the parliamentary website.