Shadow tourism minister Jamahl Simmons has blasted the One Bermuda Alliance for its failure to create more jobs for Bermudians.

In a press conference yesterday, Mr Simmons noted that the Government in 2013 promised to create 2,000 jobs over the following five years. Instead, the jobless figure had risen 17 per cent.

However, earlier finance minister Bob Richards told the media that 4,770 jobs were lost over the final four years of the Progressive Labour Party administration. “We’ve heard a lot about 2,000 jobs — Government does not have a statistical grip on these numbers at the moment, of employment numbers. The numbers that are being quoted and have been bandied about are almost a year old and they won’t get updated until October or September.”

Mr Simmons complained that the OBA were “making a lot of promises about how they will fix our economy ... but how can we trust them?”

“Time and again they failed to deliver on their promises to create jobs in Bermuda. They have looked out for their friends and helped the elite continue to prosper, while the needs of the rest of Bermudians are ignored.

“They gave tax breaks and other deals to their rich friends to help them make more money. What did the average Bermudian get? There are fewer jobs in Bermuda today then there were five years ago. The true proof of the OBA’s failed leadership is in the data shows that when the PLP left office in 2012 there were just over 35,000 jobs in Bermuda; when the OBA left office, there are just over 32,000.”

• Comments are closed on political content from July 4 to 19 to stem the flow of purposefully inflammatory and litigious comments during the General Election cycle. Users who introduce extreme partisan comments into other news content will be banned.