Manx Labour Party leader Joney Faragher has said she was surprised by some of the public commentary about her and other Tynwald members that followed the sacking of Rob Callister as health minister.

Ms Faragher said she offered to resign shortly after Rob Callister was appointed as minister.

In a post on her Facebook page, said she wanted to set the record straight for her constituents after the publication of a report into Mr Callister’s sacking.

The Douglas East MHK said: ‘It became apparent quite quickly after Mr Callister’s appointment that I would not be able to work with him effectively and retain my dignity and integrity as an elected representative. I resigned.

‘I chose not to outline my reasons. This was out of a sense of professionalism and the desire to work effectively in wider issues in future and protect the department from negative commentary.

‘The Chief Minister did not accept my resignation, being off-island. There ensued a series of meetings that made all department members realise that the issues went very deep and that we had to act further to protect the department.’

Ms Faragher said that throughout the process, she found the commentary around events in the department to be ‘very challenging’.

This related to comments made online about herself, Rushen MHK Dr Michelle Haywood and Tanya August-Hanson MLC.

She added: ‘The committee finds that Mr Callister failed to cooperate with the investigation, and made repeated public comments (for which he is required to apologise to Tynwald court, but perhaps the damage is already done).

‘A lot of the wider commentary on this has revolved around making myself and the other two department members out to be “witches” who conspired to cause harm.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have been - but I was surprised to see this in public commentary.

‘The independent investigation was undertaken by someone who lives off-island, with a background of working in political settings in a small jurisdiction and of dealing with grievance issues in the workplace.

‘I consider it to be a thorough and fair process, with both political members and departmental staff being interviewed to gather evidence.’

The investigation also found that no allegations made against Ms Faragher were upheld.