Chief Minister Howard Quayle accused critics of twisting his words as he came under fire for the government stance on having a political head of a regulator.

The government has been under pressure to agree to make the chairman of the Communications Commission a non-political role but has so far resisted.

The commission regulates broadcasting and telecommunications and it is currently chaired by Bill Malarkey, who is the Home Affairs Minister.

The government has insisted that no change should take place until the commission has carried out its own review.

Insisting that there could be a case for keeping a political head on a body that regulates a business sector, Mr Quayle told Tynwald on Tuesday: ’If we have committees where it is purely industry led then, it could be argued, I would throw back, that those committees could be biased towards that sector.’

He stressed he was not referring to a particular committee.

But his remark was pounced upon by Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) who claimed the Chief Minister ’may have been insinuating that our other regulators without political chairs, were incapable of being independent and unbiased’.

Mr Quayle hit back at Mr Hooper for ’trying to, I don’t know, twist my words’.

He added: ’Of course I am not saying that there is bias in other committees in any way, shape or form.’

The issue was raised first by Daphne Caine (Garff), who asked the Chief Minister: ’Does he consider that, in the modern age, the regulator of the media sector and the telecom sector on the island should continue to have a political chair?’

He pointed out that the Communications Commission had agreed to a consultation and to report by March next year. It made sense wait for that before deciding, he said.

However Mrs Caine pointed out that two previous consultations had seen an independent chairman was the preferred option and argued it would be ’unthinkable’ to have a political head of other regulators.

Mr Quayle pointed out that some regulatory bodies still had a political chairman, including the Office of Fair Trading.

As other members criticised the government for choosing to await the Communications Commission’s report, the chief minister said: ’I really think this is a mountain out of a molehill, when this administration is not saying no. We are saying wait until we get the report.’