As the United National Congress (UNC) administration prepares to mark its first full year in power following the April 2025 general election, Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has delivered a scathing assessment of the government’s tenure, awarding it a failing 3-out-of-10 performance score. Speaking at a press briefing hosted Tuesday at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Port of Spain, Beckles outlined a litany of unmet promises and policy failures that she said have left ordinary citizens worse off.
At the top of Beckles’ list of criticisms is the government’s ongoing failure to curb rising violent crime and homicide rates across the country. She noted that the current state of emergency implemented to tackle public safety has yielded no measurable improvements, leaving communities still vulnerable to violent offending. She added that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has refused to engage transparently and honestly with the public on the most pressing issues affecting daily life.
On economic and employment fronts, Beckles argued that the UNC has betrayed core campaign pledges to create new jobs and expand access to affordable housing. Instead of delivering on promises of growth, Beckles said the administration has overseen mass layoffs of workers from two major public job programs — the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) and the Unemployment Relief Programmes (URP). To date, she claimed, the government has not completed construction of a single new affordable housing unit, and no meaningful expansion of employment opportunities has materialized.
Beckles also pointed to widespread economic strain hitting local communities. During recent visits to public markets, she said, vendors reported that perishable goods are regularly going unsold and rotting, as cash-strapped consumers cut back on discretionary spending. She added that small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of the local economy, are closing at alarming rates amid shrinking consumer demand.
A further point of contention is the government’s reversal on the Dragon natural gas deal negotiated with Venezuela by the previous administration. Beckles recalled that Persad-Bissessar had heavily criticized the agreement ahead of the election, even labeling Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez a narcotrafficker, and ultimately allowed the deal to collapse. Now, she said, the government claims it wants to secure its fair share of revenue from the deal, an incoherent shift that underscores the administration’s incoherent foreign and energy policy.
Turning to the government’s planned anniversary celebration — a public fete scheduled to take place Wednesday in Couva — Beckles warned Trinidad and Tobago residents not to accept the administration’s rosy narrative of progress. She said officials will likely attempt to claim crime is falling, the construction sector is growing, and the energy industry is attracting new investment, but none of these claims match on-the-ground reality.
In a fact check of the government’s construction claims, Beckles noted that domestic cement sales have dropped by 41% — a clear indicator that construction activity has not revived, contrary to official claims. She also pointed to rising unemployment in Tobago as further evidence of economic decline, and questioned what the administration has done with the property tax revenue collected by the previous government, breaking a campaign promise to reimburse those funds to eligible citizens.
Beckles also called out new tax measures implemented by the UNC, saying what citizens were promised would be a welcome “Christmas present” from the new administration turned out to be a slate of new and increased taxes: higher road traffic fines, a new landlord tax, and increased duties on alcohol, among other levies.
Beyond economic and public safety failures, Beckles highlighted crises in other key policy areas. She criticized the government’s push for full digitalization of the education system, noting that similar policies have failed to deliver improvements in other countries, and warned the shift is leaving disadvantaged students behind. She also confirmed the public health system is facing a severe ongoing crisis under the current administration, with reduced access to care for ordinary patients.
Concluding her assessment, Beckles said she could identify almost no policy areas where the one-year-old UNC administration has delivered meaningful success. She called on all Trinidad and Tobago residents to hold the government accountable for its broken promises and rejected the administration’s attempts to frame its first year in power as a success, labeling the government “heartless and wicked” for its treatment of unemployed and working-class citizens.