A former Manx Government leader says that the Chief Minister should be elected by the whole of Tynwald, not just MHKs.
The House of Keys will sit to elect a new Chief Minister on October 13.
Former Chief Minister Tony Brown, who was in the House of Keys at the time the ministerial system was first introduced in the 1980s, believes that the decision to switch from the Chief Minister being voted in by all of Tynwald, to limiting it to MHKs, was a mistake.
Prior to 2021, all Tynwald Members, including Members of the Legislative Council, voted for the Chief Minister.
Brown said: “The (ministerial) system itself is fine, the things that influence how effective a system is are the people who work within it.
“The structure is good for the Isle of Man because we have independent members by a majority, who then come together to form a government.
“The only difference that they made that I think is wrong is the Chief Minister is now elected by a branch of Tynwald, the House of Keys, and not by the parliament, Tynwald, itself.”
Tynwald Should Choose
He added: “They need to reverse that because the Chief Minister should be elected by the parliament until such a day as it ever changes to the people electing a leader of a party.
“Whether Members like it or not, Tynwald is equal in terms that you have the House of Keys and the Legislative Council sitting together in one chamber.”
Brown, who was an MHK for 25 years and was Speaker of the House of Keys prior to becoming Chief Minister, said: “The Isle of Man has a unique system. The House of Keys is not like Westminster, it does a different role
“Westminster is where the government is in the House of Commons, answerable directly to the parliament.
“In the Isle of Man, the Chief Minister, the ministers and anybody responsible is actually directly responsible to Tynwald court and there is a substantial difference, constitutionally, in why that is important.”
He made the comments during an in-depth interview with Manx.News, the first part of which you can watch here:
Constitution
Brown questioned whether modern Tynwald members understood properly the parliamentary constitution in the Isle of Man.
“The amount of change within Tynwald membership over the years has diluted understanding of our constitutional structure and how it works; how Tynwald works, how it relates to the government,” he said.
“The Chief Minister, even though he is elected by the House of Keys, ultimately he is responsible to Tynwald Court.
“What matters is, are the people, through their elected representatives and through the parliament, actually having the correct influence on the election of who should lead the Isle of Man for the next five years?”
Stop Tinkering
MLCs are elected by the House of Keys, he argued
“Everyone in Tynwald is elected in some format. If you don’t like that format, then you have to change the structure and change Tynwald,” Brown added.
“What you should not do is tinker with the system and actually distort it, which is what has happened at the moment.
“There can only be one boss and that one boss is answerable to Tynwald and that is the Chief Minister. If his team does not perform the Chief Minister can hire and fire his ministers as he requires.
“If Tynwald decides the Chief MInister and his Ministers, the executive government, Council of Ministers are not performing, then they have the responsibility on behalf of the people of the Isle of Man to see if they should make a decision to remove the Chief Minister, which the law now allows.”
He also criticised the role of the Cabinet Office, which he believes is adding “subsantial” cost to the running of the government. He said the question had to be asked whether its existence had made things better.
“My answer is, it has not.”
The House of Keys will sit to elect a Chief Minister on October 13. So far, only Onchan MHK Rob Callister has declared his candidacy.
Brown made his comments in an interview with Manx.News as part of its Vote 2026 Election Night coverage.
