Chris Thomas declined to rule out a bid to become Chief Minister after securing his place back in the House of Keys in the election.
Thomas, Treasury Minister in the last administration and still in that position until new appointments are made, came in second in Douglas Central, behind Peter Shimmin.
In his initial reaction to the result and the future, he said: “I am Treasury Minister now, that is an important job.”
He said there needed to be a “consensus and clear direction” for the future and not the “fudge” that followed the 2021 election.
Asked specifically about speculation he could throw his hat in the ring for the Chief Minister job, Thomas said: “I look forward to talking with colleagues and working out. I will compromise a little bit, I hope they will.”
He added: “Let us now build on an election to put together a government that is not a fudge, that is going to go in the right direction to solve the problems we have.”
Pressed further on whether he was ruling out a bid to be Chief Minister, he said: “No. People do not matter so much as the direction of the policies. That is a very important point to me.
“I am pleased to be in there, I look forward to working with the other people who were elected today, especially the experienced ones, to get the most out of the incoming new members.”
He added: “I am pretty sure there is a clarity about direction that can be built. We certainly don’t want a fudge.
“We need to have people who are certain about what they are going to do about their energy, about our housing, about our education, training, apprenticeships and all the other issues we have got to solve.”
Just under two years ago, Thomas threw his weight behind a vote of no confidence in Chief Minister Alfred Cannan and announced his own candidacy for the job if the position became vacant. Cannan survived the confidence vote and Thomas was subsequently booted out of his role as a member of the Department of Health and Social Care.
However, relations thawed enough for Cannan to turn to Thomas to replace Alex Allinson as Treasury Minister earlier this year.
Meanwhile, current Cannan, after being re-elected in Ayre and Michael, was similar in not making a firm commitment one way or the other about standing for the Chief Minister role.
The House of Keys will vote for a new Chief Minister next month.
You can watch the full post-election interview with Chris Thomas here: