Barbara Webster-Bourne is an Anguillan politician. She served as Speaker of the Anguilla House of Assembly from 17 July 2020 to 29 January 2025. She also held the post between 27 February 2010 and 11 May 2015

Career

She ran on three occasions for the Island Harbour

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. First for the

Anguilla Democratic Party The Anguilla Democratic Party was a political party in Anguilla Anguilla is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying ea ...

in the 1999 general election and then as an independent candidate in both the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and 2005 general elections. Following the 2010 Anguillan general election, Webster-Bourne was voted in as the Speaker of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

on 27 February, the first time a woman had held the post in Anguilla's history. She replaced outgoing speaker David Carty. The

Governor of Anguilla The governor of Anguilla is the representative of the monarch in the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Government of the United Kingdom. The governor is the highest authority ...

, Alistair Harrison, said of her appointment, "I believe that she holds one of the most difficult jobs in Anguilla and I wish her well in her important duties." In 2012, she admonished the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Leroy Rogers, after he criticised her publicly on Radio Anguilla. He claimed that during the passage of the Vehicles and Road Traffic Amendment Bill 2011, that Webster-Bourne should have had no opinion on whether one of the offences proposed should have been included. She reminded him that the office of speaker is non-political, but under the Anguilla Constitution Order 1982 she has such rights. In the following year, she had a public falling out with members of the opposition party who accused of not remaining neutral and allowing the ruling party the ability to legislate how they wished. She responded with a public letter published in ''

The Anguillian ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', to which they said that they would place a motion of no-confidence in her within the House of Assembly. This was all part of an ongoing unrest between Webster-Bourne and the opposition party, whose leader, Evans McNiel Rogers, she had removed from the chamber on multiple occasions. Following the 2015 Anguillan general election, Webster-Bourne was replaced by her deputy, Leroy Rogers, as speaker on 11 May 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster-Bourne, Barbara Living people Speakers of the House of Assembly of Anguilla Members of the House of Assembly of Anguilla Anguillan women in politics 21st-century British women politicians Women legislative speakers Year of birth missing (living people)