The change comes after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong removed Pritam Singh as Leader of the Opposition on Jan 15. - Photo: MDDI
SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh will no longer sit directly opposite Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Parliament, following Pritam’s removal as Leader of the Opposition.
An updated seating plan that Parliament put up on its website on Tuesday (Feb 3) showed that Deputy Speaker of Parliament Christopher de Souza will now occupy the seat across the aisle from PM Wong.
de Souza will be flanked by fellow PAP MPs Xie Yao Quan and Vikram Nair, who are both chairmen of government parliamentary committees. Pritam will be seated to the left of Xie, who is also a Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
With the shift two seats down, Pritam will now be opposite Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies.
The seating plan was updated at about 10.30am on Feb 3, before Parliament was due to sit.
When Parliament sat at noon, Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng said he had received a letter from PM Wong which formally confirmed that Pritam’s designation as Leader of the Opposition had ceased as of Jan 15.
On Jan 15, PM Wong had removed Pritam as Leader of the Opposition, one day after Parliament voted to consider Pritam unsuitable for the office.
Pritam had been convicted on two charges of lying under oath under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act in February 2025, in relation to former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie in Parliament in 2021.
He was fined the maximum of $7,000 for each of the charges and the verdict was upheld on appeal by the High Court in December 2025.
On Jan 14, Parliament approved a motion raised by Leader of the House Indranee Rajah which said Pritam’s conduct and court conviction meant that he had fallen short of the requirements and standards expected of a Leader of the Opposition.
All PAP MPs and Nominated MPs agreed to the motion, while the 11 WP MPs present in the House dissented.
In his Jan 15 statement, PM Wong said it was no longer tenable for Pritam to continue as Leader of the Opposition, given his criminal convictions and Parliament’s considered view of his unsuitability for the role.
This means Pritam will no longer be given the privileges of the position, which include the right of first reply during parliamentary debates, more time for his speeches and twice the allowance of an elected MP.
PM Wong then invited the WP to nominate another elected MP to serve as the next Leader of the Opposition. The stipulation was that the nominee should not have been implicated in the earlier findings of the Committee of Privileges that looked into Khan’s case.
On Jan 21, WP released a statement saying it had declined PM Wong’s invitation to nominate another elected MP to the position. The party said its view was that the leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament is the Leader of the Opposition.
In his letter to Seah on Feb 3, PM Wong said: “The position of the Leader of the Opposition in this term will remain vacant until such time that the Workers’ Party nominates another suitable elected Member of Parliament to take on this responsibility.”
Singh was Singapore’s first formally designated Leader of the Opposition. In 2020, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made the appointment after the WP won 10 seats in that year’s general election.
Speaking in the House in September 2020, then PM Lee said the Leader of the Opposition sits directly on the front bench opposite the prime minister to challenge the incumbent and help the Government perform better.
“He is there to challenge the incumbent PM and the Government to point out their faults, to highlight where the Government has fallen short, to keep chipping away at the Government’s and the PM’s credibility, and so at the next general election, or sooner if the opportunity arises, the opposition can knock the Government out of power, and take its place,” he said.
“I am saying this not as a criticism of any political party or anybody in Singapore, but I am saying this is how the system is designed to work.”
Following the 2025 General Election, PM Wong reappointed Pritam as Leader of the Opposition. - The Straits Times/ANN
