Opposition leader Marc Bean pressured Government MP Nandi Outerbridge to resign from Parliament and force a by-election after she became the focus of a police investigation, it has been alleged.

Mr Bean’s attempt to get the political rookie to stand down is just one of a number of inappropriate suggestions, and controversial remarks, that the Progressive Labour Party leader is alleged to have made after he called for a meeting with Ms Davis last summer. Mrs Outerbridge recorded their conversation and handed the tape over to One Bermuda Alliance officials.

And Premier Craig Cannonier has now revealed that he found the contents of the tape so “very bad”and “atrocious” that he believed it was in the best interests of the country that details of the discussion remain under wraps.

Mrs Outerbridge, 26 — who won her St George’s seat by just four votes from the Progressive Labour Party’s Renee Anderson-Ming in the December, 2012 general election — became the subject of a police investigation into a complaint of criminal damage last June. She was quizzed by detectives in August, although the case was dropped a month later and no charges were brought.

But her meeting with Mr Bean took place in July, when she was still under investigation and when her political future was under intense public scrutiny.

It was Mr Bean who first spoke publicly about the existence of the recording during an often heated debate in the House of Assembly on Friday evening.

Speaking during the Motion to Adjourn he claimed that the Premier had made an off-mic reference to the tape earlier in the day.

“When I was giving my personal explanation, the Premier says ‘You wait till we release your tape’,” Mr Bean said.

“Hmm. What tape is that? Oh, okay, well let me let the people know what tape it is. Let me let the people know the depths of the One Bermuda Alliance, the gutter politics that they study.”

Mr Bean went on to say that last July, when Mrs Outerbridge “went through some personal challenges and difficulties”, he was contacted by the MP’s husband “who begged me to make sure that the PLP does not attack her in Parliament”.

Mr Bean said he assured Mr Outerbridge that he would not raise personal affairs in the House of Assembly, and then telephoned Mrs Outerbridge to offer the same reassurances.

“So I said ‘sister, look, why don’t you come into my lounge and let’s have a chat’ so I can reassure her that I was not going to attack her in this honourable chamber,” Mr Bean said.

He claimed that Mrs Outerbridge initially turned down the invitation, but called back 45 minutes later saying that she had changed her mind.

“Well, lo and behold I’ve come to find out, and it’s been admitted by this honourable member, that she was wired — she recorded our conversation,” Mr Bean said.

“Someone on her side put her up [to it]. She was under extreme pressure, and they wired her up to come and try to record my conversation with her when I’m trying to help her out.

“Hey, one thing about this member, one thing I can trust, while she might be young, she understands reality and things like that are unconscionable — you know you can’t do things like that.”

At that point, Premier Cannonier rose to make a point of order, insisting that Mr Bean was misleading the House by claiming Mrs Outerbridge had been wired and put under pressure to attend the meeting.

Attorney General Mark Pettingill also spoke up, saying: “The honourable member is making serious allegations. He needs to say who pressured that member to be wired and to go and record that member.”

Mr Bean then invited Mrs Outerbridge to name any party bosses who had pressured her to make the recording, but she refused to do so.

“That’s the type of gutter politics the One Bermuda Alliance is studying on the people of this country,” Mr Bean went on.

“They’re so hell-bent on trying to bring my party into disrepute that even when we’re trying to help them, they’re trying to hurt us.”

He concluded by accusing Government of 14 months of “falsehood and deception and subservient, undermining activities”.

But Mr Cannonier questioned Mr Bean’s version of events, suggesting that the PLP leader had called the meeting in an attempt to get Mrs Outerbridge to resign or cross the floor.

He added that he had been shocked that Mr Bean ever mentioned the recording because it was so damaging to the Opposition leader, and that he had eventually decided not to go public with the recording because it would harm the country.

“I do know that there have been several attempts to try to get many of our members to come across the floor, to put pressure on them,” Mr Cannonier said.

“And I can categorically say, with factual information, that one of our honourable members, under a very distressing situation was encouraged to drop out, or go to the other side, because of the circumstances that were going on. The honourable Opposition [leader] has mentioned it. I’m shocked that he would even bring it up in this House about the fact that he was recorded.

“None of us told her to record. And that she was wired? This is ridiculous. But I can tell you this Mr Speaker — that I have heard what that tape said, okay?

“Well let me just say something Mr Speaker. I didn’t feel that it was in the best interests — that what I had heard — to allow the public to hear it — because it is bad. It is bad.

“I’m going to say it again — it is atrocious what I heard on that tape, the things that were said. Mr Speaker

“I’ll say it again. I did not tell them to record that conversation, so if there was any stress being put on that honourable member, I can clearly say Mr Speaker from where I stand it was coming from somewhere else.”

Mr Cannonier then pointed out that, had Mrs Outerbridge and the Government plotted to entrap Mr Bean, the recording would have been made public much earlier.

“It wasn’t coming from here, if it was, we would have put the tape out there already — already,” he said.

And he brushed aside claims by Mr Bean that Government had been unable to make the recording public because it was made illegally.

“It’s not illegal — and who thinks we haven’t thought about that or looked at that?,” he said.

“I refused to allow these things to be put out there in the best interests of this country. But it does reflect on how far the Opposition leader is willing to go when you start name-calling as your last resort.”

Last night a spokesman for the Premier would not say if, now that the existence of the recording has been made known, its contents would be shared with the public.

And a spokesman for the PLP failed to address questions from this newspaper about the recording, saying only that Mr Bean would address all allegations later today.

The Royal Gazette’s legal advisor has confirmed that, although it is illegal for anyone to record a telephone conversation without all parties being aware of the fact, Mrs Outerbridge did nothing illegal when she recorded her in-person conversation with Mr Bean. Furthermore, any transcript of that conversation can legally be made public.