Singapore parliament votes to remove opposition leader after lying conviction

SINGAPORE, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Singapore’s parliament voted to remove opposition chief Pritam Singh from his post as leader of the opposition on Wednesday after he was convicted of lying to lawmakers. 

Indranee Rajah, the house leader and member of the ruling People’s Action Party, submitted a motion to declare Singh, head of the Workers’ Party, unsuitable to continue as opposition chief given his “dishonourable and unbecoming” conduct. 

Parliament’s decision will need to be confirmed by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to take effect as the opposition leader is designated by the head of government.

A Singapore court found Singh guilty of giving false testimony to a parliamentary committee in 2021 about a fellow party member, Raeesah Khan, who admitted to lying in a parliamentary speech about an account of her accompanying a sexual assault victim to make a police report. 

Singh’s appeal was rejected in court in December. 

In a speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, Indranee said Singh’s misconduct involved multiple lies to different persons at different times, and that he had shown no “remorse, accountability or acceptance of responsibility”.

Singh responded that a conviction did not negate his right to assert innocence. He said he had accepted the court’s verdict and took full responsibility for not responding quickly enough to correct his colleague’s lie.

Singh, 49, was Singapore’s first official Leader of the Opposition since the city state gained independence in 1965. He was appointed after the 2020 general election, when his party gained five seats in parliament, bringing its total to 10.

In 2025, the People’s Action Party won its 14th consecutive election by taking 87 of 97 seats up for grabs to extend its unbroken six-decade rule. The Workers’ Party won the remainder and Singh was reappointed as leader of the opposition.

(Reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; editing by David Stanway and Mark Heinrich)