President of the Senate, Tom Tavares-Finson has criticized Opposition Leader Mark Golding for his comments, about the appointment of Juliet Holness as Speaker of the House.

As Mr Golding neared the end of his budget debate presentation on Tuesday, he noted that having the wife of the prime minster, as House Speaker, goes against the tradition of having an independent speaker.

This led to heated exchanges between members of both sides of the aisle, and government members walking out.

This meant the house no longer had a quorum of 16, and the sitting was adjourned.

In a release following the incident, Mr Tavares-Finson said the leader of the opposition sank below the minimum standard of ethics, respect, decency, and honour.

He said Mr Golding will say and do anything to distract the public from the true issue at hand, which is to articulate a clear vision supported by a definite plan for the betterment of the Jamaican people.

According to him, Mr Golding had an opportunity to tell Jamaica how he would fund public statements he has repeatedly made about the economic future of Jamaicans.

He said having being unable to meet the expectations of the Jamaican people, his strategy was to attack the speaker of the house who was nominated unopposed and supported by the opposition in her ascension to the role of speaker.

The senate president said the attack on the house speaker is in breach of every commonwealth convention, governing the office of the speaker and does not align with the spirit of supporting women when, on their own merit, they rise to positions of consequence in society.