A One Bermuda Alliance candidate accused of making “deeply divisive” remarks about the Civil Service has defended his comments.

In a statement, Robert King, who will represent the Opposition in Smith’s North, also wrongly accused The Royal Gazette of failing to publicly acknowledge that it had misquoted him in the original article, which was published last Friday.

In fact the error was corrected on The Gazette’ website that afternoon and a notification informing readers of the error and correction was printed at the foot of the story.

The notification stated: “This story has been updated to correct an inaccurate quote attributed to Mr King which had read ‘Many are leaving this island because they don’t feel their needs are getting addressed by a Black government and a Black Civil Service who you would expect to be well equipped to deal with Black persons’.

“Mr King actually said ‘Many are leaving this island because they don’t feel their needs are getting addressed by a Black government and a Black Civil Service who you would expect to be well equipped to deal with Black problems’.”

Mr King’s remarks was condemned by the Bermuda Public Services Union, which claimed Mr King had “vilified” public officers because of their race.

In his statement, Mr King said: “I would like to clarify what was meant from my perspective as a former civil servant, having worked within the criminal justice system.

“What I meant was this. The government of the day states that it is a government that represents and addresses the needs of the community, in particular the Black community, and this would be evident in the make-up of the current government, which is 99 per cent Black and 1 per cent White.

“The Civil Service — in particular the criminal justice system of which my former clients and I have had knowledge and experience of for over 20 years — is essentially Black.”