Guernsey's political review of 2025

The year started with the promise of political renewal, a chance for a reset after some challenging times.

It brought a new Policy and Resources Committee, a new States chief executive and it was hoped, within government at least, a new lease of life for the States of Guernsey.

However, despite some fresh faces in key positions, we round off 2025 with the same problems persisting, and with some new and unprecedented ones having emerged.

In June's general election Lindsay de Sausmarez rose to the top of the polls to become chief minister, promising an end to the divisive politics which dominated the last decade, and while the initial signs were good, small tribal fissures are already developing.

An example of this is the disagreement over British Airways' new Heathrow service to Guernsey.

The new chief minister will hope the fissures don't expand to the depths seen in previous terms.

Construction has started on a new college, but funding for the whole project remains unclear and some officials behind the scenes have doubts it will ever be completed.

The current target date for the opening of the new facilities at Les Ozouets is early 2027.

The last two policy and resources (P&R) committees were dogged by problems with IT services and transformation, which led to the dropping of a £200m contract with Agilysis.

Despite this, or perhaps, partially caused by this, P&R has become aware of £42m worth of IT projects which it says have either barely delivered, or failed entirely.

When it comes to managing big projects - IT or elsewhere - recent history would suggest the States of Guernsey has some work to do.

In July we revealed the new critical care unit at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital had been beset with numerous issues related to fire safety, leading to a dispute with the main contractor, who is also contracted for all the other work to modernise the hospital.

Officials suggested the already delayed unit could open before the end of 2025, but have now rowed back on those suggestions, with a new target of opening to patients next year - watch this space.

Ever since I started in this job one of my editors has always stressed to me that Guernsey politics is dominated by one issue – not having enough money.

This year did not see that problem disappear and the budget for 2026 shows little signs of much change either.

The main fiscal event for this political term is next year, with a review of corporate tax and GST being worked on - helmed by Deputy Charles Parkinson - with debates scheduled on whether GST should apply to food and whether Guernsey should get more money from companies, a GST or neither.

Something did change in 2025 though, the house went from a majority in support of the tax reform package, centred on a 5% GST, to a majority against.

June's general election saw 17 new politicians elected, while a few returned like deputies Garry Collins, Sarah Hansmann-Rouxel and Marc Lainé.

Big beasts like Peter Ferbrache, Andrea Dudley-Owen and Rob Prow all lost their seats, with their full-blooded support for GST an obvious factor in their electoral defeats.

Outside the chamber one political story stands out as the biggest news event of 2025 - the arrest, charging, guilty pleas and resignation of former chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq for creating more than 2,400 indecent images of children.

When I received the news about his arrest, which led to us breaking the story at about 21:00 on 22 July, I did not know what the offences were - having been told they were related to "telecommunications".

Months later, as he was charged, the full gravity of the situation sank in when I read the court sheets, while sitting in the public gallery of court room 2.

It was immediately obvious we were in by-election territory and the man who just weeks before his arrest was the frontrunner to become the island's chief minister, would not be returning to the States and ending the year facing the prospect of a prison sentence.

He is due to be sentenced in January.

On the day of Le Tocq's guilty pleas rumours of one of the other big, but entirely unrelated, political stories of the year emerged - the arrest of Deputy Gavin St Pier and his wife Jane surrounding allegations of harassment, which they strenuously deny.

There is not a huge amount more I can say about this, aside from it being an extremely serious matter which police are still investigating – including through the seizure of the St Pier's devices.

Following the States decision to reject his proposed suspension from politics after he was found to have broken the code of conduct, it's clear with this and his ongoing work as vice-president of P&R, Deputy St Pier will remain the main character in Guernsey politics as we move into 2026 – whether he wants to or not.

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