‘It’s broken English’: MP’s attempt to speak Jamaican in parliament sparks language row

Nekeisha Burchell said her intervention was not meant to be ‘anti-British’ or ‘anti-English’ but was about Jamaica’s cultural confidence. Photograph: Supplied

When the Jamaican MP Nekeisha Burchell stood up to give her maiden speech, she was keenly aware of how much her country’s parliament mirrored the Westminster version thousands of miles away in London.

As in the UK, the session on 12 May had started with the arrival of the ceremonial mace – a 1.7-metre ornamented silver staff representing the British monarch’s authority over parliament – which now rested on a table between the government and the opposition. Despite the heat outside, debate was presided over by the speaker dressed in a ceremonial robe.