PRIME MINISTER OWEN ARTHUR was put on the spot yesterday over the exclusion of Hamilton Lashley in Saturday's Cabinet reshuffle.

While participating in yesterday's Down To Brass Tacks call-in programme, a female caller from St Michael South East queried Lashley's treatment.

While plans for Lashley remain unknown, Arthur tried in vain to assure the irate caller that "Lashley is happy with his circumstances".

As if not convinced all was well with her representative, the caller argued that Lashley had done good for the poor people in his constituency.

The Prime Minister swiftly agreed, and explained that his reason for moving people from Cabinet was in no way saying they had done a bad job.

Arthur cited the removal of his "very closest" friend John Williams, who had done "a spectacular job" as Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, and publicly thanked both he and Lashley.

"The fact of the matter is that if people get appointed to Cabinet, they are not appointments that are forever and ever. You hold and you serve and Mr Lashley has done a magnificent job . . . . Mr Lashley is perfectly happy and when you get a chance to see him, he will tell you so," Arthur reiterated.

The caller insisted that Lashley should have come and said something to the people who put him there. She then sounded a warning.

"We ain't gine put nobody dey that you gine send up in hey . . . . We want Lashley, we want Hammie Lah," she declared.

Arthur's only response was: "Madame . . . that is your prerogative, thank you." (YB)