Premier Ewart Brown was defeated in a heated House of Assembly vote last night, after two backbenchers condemned his bill entitling Deputy Premier Paula Cox to a pay rise.

Randy Horton and Wayne Perinchief both spoke out against the legislation, which would have allowed Ms Cox to raise her salary from $100,000 to $150,000 despite all other MPs deferring their own pay rises in the economic crisis.

The night before the debate, Ms Cox had pledged to reject the extra cash even if the bill passed — but some believe the Premier only brought it forward to try to embarrass the Finance Minister and undermine her likely Premiership bid later this year.

Some backbenchers have told The Royal Gazette they still think Dr. Brown does not really intend to stand down when his four-year term ends in October this year, despite his repeated statements to the contrary. During last night's debate, MPs gave support to Ms Cox and her work ethic — but they repeatedly asked Dr. Brown to explain why he was bringing such a bill forward at such a time.

The Premier offered no reason in the House, but late last night told this newspaper it was a "housekeeping bill" to clear the way for future administrations.

At one stage during his speech, Mr. Horton defied the Premier's apparent disapproval of his comments, telling him: "If we pass the bill, what we are doing is raising the Budget by $50,000. Yes, Mr. Premier, I see you mashing up your face, but that's exactly what it is."

Following just over an hour of almost entirely critical comments from MPs, the vote took place with committee chair Dame Jennifer Smith initially claiming: "The ayes have it".

After grumbles from the Opposition ranks, Dame Jennifer called a named vote — and it went down by 14 votes to 12.

Voting against, along with Mr. Horton and Mr. Perinchief, were: Independent MP Darius Tucker; Mark Pettingill, Donte Hunt and Shawn Crockwell of Bermuda Democratic Alliance; John Barritt, Trevor Moniz, Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, Charlie Swan, Kim Swan, Cole Simons, Louise Jackson and Bob Richards of the United Bermuda Party.

Voting in favour were: Dr. Brown, Ms Cox, Ministers Glenn Blakeney, Derrick Burgess, Walter Roban, Zane DeSilva, Neletha Butterfield and Elvin James, Progressive Labour Party Whip Lovitta Foggo, and Government backbenchers Michael Weeks, Patrice Minors and Alex Scott. Absent were: PLP backbenchers Dale Butler, Ashfield DeVent and Terry, Dennis and Walter Lister, Minister Michael Scott and Grant Gibbons of the UBP.

The bill — the Ministers and Members of the Legislature (Salaries and Pensions) Amendment Act — removes the reference to part-time Ministers on Government's pay scale, taking part-time Ministers' pay into line with their full-time colleagues. The only part-time Minister is Ms Cox, who also works as a counsel for Ace.

Mr. Horton thanked Ms Cox for saying she would decline the extra money, and noted she carries out the workload of a full-time Minister.

However, the former Education Minister told the House: "I'm somewhat disappointed that we have to bring this bill to the House at this time. "I don't think we should be making decisions that are going to raise the cost to the people of this Country at this time."

Mr. Perinchief noted a review of MPs salaries had taken place five years ago, recommending adjustments to all Parliamentarians' pay, which have been deferred. "It's a bit unfortunate that only one member is now affected," said the former Culture Minister.

"It may be coincidental, but the very poignant and very significant situation is that she should not be singled out individually.

"This legislation is meant to cover all Ministers. Even though the legislation is meant to be general, it becomes very specific.

"It's on that lynchpin that I feel uncomfortable that the Minister is now affected so much so she has now had to say she will not accept the increase.

"This should be withdrawn and brought back at a time in a way that the whole issue, the whole raft of issues, concerning Ministers or members of the legislature can be amended, and this piece should not be brought out on its own at this time."

In response to repeated questions about why the bill was brought forward, Dr. Brown told the House: "This bill does nothing to increase the salary of anyone in this Government. None. That is the singlemost important response I can give."

He later told this newspaper: "This was a housekeeping bill to clear the way for future administrations. It had no practical monetary impact because the Minister had already indicated that she has no intention of accepting any increase.

"Obviously the majority of the members present disagreed. That's how a democracy works."

However, Shadow Legislative Reform Minister Mr. Barritt told this newspaper after the debate: "I thought it was intended to embarrass the Minister. They were trying to undermine her candidacy."

Those sentiments were echoed by one backbencher speaking on condition of anonymity. Ms Cox's only contribution to the debate was to correct Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Richards' suggestion she would not be able to reject the pay rise even if she wanted to.

Mr. Richards then said: "The only thing I can say here is, this is a nonsense; this is sheer nonsense, particularly as the Honourable Finance Minister said there's a mechanism allowing her to reject the increase.

"Why the heck are we here? Government can take up our valuable time, their valuable time, to pass a piece of legislation that is essentially a 'nihilism'. It has a nil impact.

"If there's some other agenda, it would be very nice for the Honourable Premier to tell us what the other agenda is. We want to know why are we debating something that will have no effect."

Mr. Barritt said: "There are a number of political pundits and people on the street who wonder whether this was aimed at that particular Minister because of internal politics."

Mr. Crockwell described the timing of the bill as "auspicious", adding: "Not only are we baffled by this piece of legislation, but the community is baffled."

He noted Ms Cox had stressed the need for sacrifice throughout her 2010 Budget Statement. "People are concerned that the Government is not leading by example with this Budget and this piece of legislation," said Mr. Crockwell.

His BDA colleague Mr. Pettingill said: "If the Honourable Lady is not taking the salary, I don't quite get why we are doing this right now ... this was plucked out of the whole review that was going on, about salaries."

Deputy UBP Leader Mr. Moniz said: "We seem to be in a very strange position ... that we are going to all this trouble to offer an increase to a person who's already said she isn't going to accept it."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin described Dr. Brown's move as "totally illogical", saying: "I don't think any of us would be able to go and look at our constituents in the eye and say what we are doing to benefit Members of Parliament is OK, because clearly from where I sit it is inappropriate and out of order."

Mr. Burgess spoke briefly to stress that even though Ms Cox is paid as a part-time Minister, her Finance Ministry job demands that she works full-time.

After the vote, Dr. Brown asked for debates on licence fees for motor vehicles and bicycles, which he had been scheduled to lead, to be carried over.