Petition Calls for No Confidence Vote

An online petition calling for a vote of no confidence in the Alf Cannan administration has achieved 200 signatures on its first day.

This comes after the Chamber of Commerce revealed its members have given last month’s Budget a big thumbs down amid spiralling level of trust in the gov.

Created by a person apparently called Jonathan Smith, the petition calls for a vote of no confidence from MHKs.

It would require 13 MHKs to oust a Chief Minister.

They say: ‘This week 200 Isle of Man business owners or operators who are members of the Island’s Chamber of Commerce voted overwhelmingly against the Isle of Man’s Budget and publicly expressed absolutely no confidence in the Islands tax strategy and its Council of Ministers.

‘Many individual taxpayers are also very concerned about the impact of increased personal income taxes with the introduction of a new higher rate of tax (an effective 10% increase in the Islands normal rate of income tax). But this new high rate of tax does not apply to traditional high earning taxpayers as it might in other jurisdictions but essentially to most Island residents earning over the Islands living wage.’

Since the Budget, MHKs, including Onchan MHK Rob Callister has asked constituents for their opinion on the gov, the petition says that that is meaningless unless a vote is called.

In an effort to push that, they added: ‘If you support the calling of a vote of no confidence in the Council of Ministers to test public opinion then hopefully one of our highly paid MHKs might actually do something about it. Please register your vote here.’

You can find the petition here.