Deputy faces 'no confidence' call

Bernard Flouquet said he had assumed his comments would remain private

Sixteen Guernsey politicians have signed a letter calling for a vote of no confidence in Guernsey's deputy chief minister.

It asks Bernard Floquet to make a decision about his position by Sunday.

On Wednesday he said he was not considering resigning over a controversial joke about Barack Obama made at a press conference last week.

He apologised for the incident to the States and said it had been a "considerable lesson" to him.

I was foolish enough to repeat a somewhat tasteless joke that I'd picked up the day before Deputy Bernard Flouquet

Chief Minister Lyndon Trott is standing by his second-in-command.

Deputy Flouquet, who made a racist joke about Mr Obama, has, so far, ignored calls for his resignation.

His comments about the US President-elect were made at a media briefing last week.

He told the States on Wednesday that he had made the joke to lighten the mood of gloomy journalists.

However, the deputy chief minister accepted he had been "exceptionally naive" and said the episode had been a "personal embarrassment".

'Unreserved apology'

"I was foolish enough to repeat a somewhat tasteless joke that I'd picked up at a conference in London the day before," Mr Flouquet told the States.

"At a press briefing for local journalists I was anxious to lighten their gloomy mood prior to explaining some very serious and technical information."

He said the joke was not intended for broadcast, nor did it reflect his opinion or that of the island's government.

"This incident has been a considerable lesson to me, which I shall never forget, and from which I will take heed in my personal and political future," he said before offering an "unreserved apology" to the people of Guernsey.