Vere Bird Jr.

Vere Bird Jr. (October 1936 – 31 March 2013) was an Antiguan lawyer and politician who served as chairman of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) and a government minister. He was the son of Vere Bird, the former Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and brother of Lester Bird, who later held the same position.

Bird entered politics in 1981. Three years later he was elected to the House of Representatives and became Minister of Aviation, Public Information and Public Utilities. As minister, Bird conducted a purchase deal for Dominican water before being made Minister of Public Works and Communications on 1 January 1987. In this role, he oversaw the reconstruction of V. C. Bird International Airport, which was the subject of controversy. This led to conflict within the ALP, but Bird remained a minister. He was later removed from Cabinet after a scandal in which Israeli weapons, sold to Antigua and Barbuda, were found in the hands of the Medellín Cartel of Colombian drug smugglers. A report by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper recommended that he be prohibited from holding public office again.

Despite this decision, Bird returned to government on 15 May 1996 as Minister of Science, Technology and Communications, with a transfer to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Business Development following the 1999 general election. In 2000, he became Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries and negotiated an end to the Antiguan boycott of agricultural goods from Trinidad and Tobago.

After the ALP lost the 2004 general election to the United Progressive Party, Bird remained involved in politics. He and six other senior ALP members were arrested in 2009 after an unauthorised May Day rally. They were charged with public order offences, and faced trial which was delayed after Bird had a seizure. He had two more seizures in 2010, after the trial, and died on 31 March 2013 of heart failure.