Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar would like to assure constituents that, despite what you may have heard, he would not be leaving the B.C. NDP to join the Communist Party of British Columbia.

Brar's comments follow assertions made earlier this week by B.C. Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, who claimed Brar had a blatant infatuation with communism following a recent trip to Cuba.

The comments from Bennett came after Brar had discussed seeing things like free education, a non-existent gap between rich and poor and no child going to bed hungry in Cuba.

"Jagrup's interview should be a wakeup call for any British Columbian who values individual enterprise and individual freedom," Bennett said in a statement.

Brar dismissed Bennett's claims, noting that it just goes to show that the B.C.

Liberals have run out of real issues to talk about.

"The B.C. Liberal government should focus their energy on the pressing issues rather than talking about the holidays of other MLAs."

For Brar, Bennett's suggestion the NDP is harbouring some kind of hidden communist agenda are absurd and harkens back to red-scare type of politics.

"It's because of this kind of dirty politics that the people of British Columbia are losing trust in elected officials," said Brar. "It is this kind of politics that upset people."

Brar said he was making note of how life appeared in Cuba compared to B.C., which has Canada's highest rate of child poverty.

"The context of my statements was that we are a wealthy nation and we have these kinds of issues in front of us," he said. "We can do better and the people of British Columbia want us to do better.

Twitter@ questionchris