Islanders reject idea of direct rule by London

ROAD TOWN: UK officials began a series of meetings on Monday to decide whether corruption scandals in the British Virgin Islands justify imposing direct rule on the archipelago.

The UK’s Minister for Overseas Territories Amanda Milling met with local leaders after a report published last week painted a picture of widespread contracting fraud and presumed government corruption.

The report recommended revoking the local constitution, dissolving the legislature and governing the territory from London for two years.

As Ms Milling prepared to meet with local politicians in the capital Road Town, she was greeted by a few hundred protesters carrying signs that read “I was born free” and “No Direct UK Rule”, according to reports by local news outlet BVINews.

The report was published after last week’s arrest of Premier Andrew Fahie — the territory’s highest elected official — on drug trafficking and money laundering charges in Miami. BVI Governor John Rankin, the UK’s unelected representative to the islands, has said there was no connection between the report and Mr Fahie’s arrest.

The BVI is home to about 30,000 people and 400,000 companies.

If the UK does move ahead with the direct-rule plan, it would be provocative step in a region that has been increasingly trying to cut ties with London, said Christoper Famous, a member of Bermuda’s parliament and the host of Territories Talk, an online show that covers the Caribbean.

Barbados recently ditched Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state to became a full-fledged republic.

Jamaica and the Bahamas have suggested they might follow suit.

And former British colonies throughout the Caribbean have said the UK needs to make amends for its history of slavery.

Amid this backdrop, if London were to seize more power from local authorities, “it would be electing to take an action that proves just how tone deaf it is when considering anti-colonial sentiment”, he said.