EXCLUSIVE
THE Health Minister has said he would like to resume his role after next year’s election – but only if his Grouville and St Martin deputy sister is also re-elected and gets a place in government, the JEP can reveal.
Speaking in today’s Saturday Interview, Deputy Tom Binet said his focus was currently on completing the work underway in Health, which he would be open to continuing, if Islanders back him in June’s election.
“I’ve got a lot to do. I don’t want to think about it,” he said. “The first thing you’ve got to do is persuade the electorate. I take nothing for granted.”
He also made clear that he would only consider returning to government alongside his sister, Deputy Rose Binet, who currently serves as an Assistant Health Minister.
“I don’t want to work without going back in with my sister, because we’ve always worked together – that’s point one,” he said.
Deputy Binet said the next four years would be decisive for the Island’s health service, with the new acute hospital at Overdale due to be built, commissioned and in use by the end of the next electoral term.
“The hospital construction is about four years. It should be delivered, commissioned and in use by the end of the next electoral period,” he said. “We’ve set an ambition to get the health service in as good a shape as the new hospital. It would be great to be part of that right till the end.”
He said his desire to stay on was linked to how long he had already spent working on the hospital project, beginning during his time as Infrastructure Minister in 2022 and continuing after he moved to Health in 2024 following a successful vote of no confidence in then-Chief Minister Kristina Moore.
After backing Deputy Lyndon Farnham’s successful bid for Chief Minister, Deputy Binet was appointed Health Minister and said the administration had been functioning more effectively since.
“The new government is a happier place,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy the first round very much. This experience has been much more positive.”
“In a way, I wanted Health,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve got three Assistant Ministers, and having my sister there, from a strategic point of view, has been vital. We’ve worked together for 50 years.”
Two years into the job, he said the department now had “a pretty good grasp” of what needed to improve.
“We’ve laid a number of foundations,” he said.
Deputy Binet’s election revelation comes after the JEP revealed this week that Treasury Minister Elaine Millar was planning to stand next year as a Senator. She said she felt the current government had achieved a great deal, but that there was more she wished to achieve within her portfolio.
