Six years after founding the party he now says that he will stand in the October Senatorial elections as an independent candidate, and has criticised his former colleagues for their left wing views and their refusal to do any work.
‘I have always intended it to be a centrist party, not a left-wing party,’ he said.
‘It is a great shame because it is a party I founded and I bitterly regret that it has gone that way.
It has been a big decision for me because I have worked very hard for the last six months to try to portray the JDA in the way that I think it should be portrayed.’
• See today’s JEP for the full report