​Antigua Observer – St. John’s Antigua – As the Antiguan public continues to express outrage over Maria Browne’s involvement in a $2 million venture capital fund, her husband, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, has threatened to take legal action against “anyone” who attacks his wife’s integrity.

“I have nothing to stay. If Harold Lovell and others continue to mess with my wife’s integrity, they will get a suit. I have nothing else to say,” Browne declared in brief OBSERVER media interview yesterday.

During last week’s presentation of the 2016 Budget, Browne announced that his wife’s charity — Share Incorporated — will partner with the Government of Antigua & Barbuda in the creation of a venture capital fund for business start-ups and expansion “at least half of which will be allocated to female entrepreneurs”.

However, despite Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator Lennox Weston providing further details on the venture, members of the public and the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) have harshly criticised the prime minister’s decision and questioned his motive for involving his wife.

Callers to OBSERVER media’s newsroom and radio programmes expressed the concern that the monies derived from the fund would go directly to Maria Browne’s charity.