New UK gov’t seen as ‘less hostile’ to OTs

The United Kingdom’s new Labour government will likely take a “less hostile approach” than its predecessors toward the Virgin Islands and other overseas territories, a senior VI official has predicted. Benito Wheatley, special envoy for the premier, said that the UK-OT relationship had been “bad” during the past 14 years of Tory rule.

Speaking during a BVI Finance panel aired less than two weeks after Labour’s landslide win in the UK general election on July 4, Mr. Wheatley said an attitude of “collaboration, not colonialism,” needs to prevail.

The special envoy, who is also the brother of Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, added that he detected a willingness from UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s freshly installed government to improve the situation.

“Under 14 years of Conservative rule, the relationship between the UK and its territories was really strained,” Mr. Wheatley said during the July 16 forum. “It was bad. And I don’t think Labour wants to continue that trend.”

Different tone?

Mr. Wheatley added that he expects a different tone from the Starmer administration.

“I think Labour wants to demonstrate that they are a friend to the overseas territories,” he said. “They don’t want to have a colonial relationship: They want to have a collaborative relationship. They will take steps to re-establish a partnership between the UK and the territories. We expect a less hostile approach.”

To support his point, Mr. Wheatley pointed to the help offered to islands impacted by Hurricane Beryl in recent weeks by newly appointed British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary David Lammy.

“He wants to see Britain have a modern relationship with the Caribbean,” the special envoy said.

He added that such change is overdue.

“It had to be reframed from being this contentious relationship to be one of partnership,” he said.

Company register

As a financial hub, he added, the VI should be able to make its own decisions without British interference.

“No overseas territory wants to have impositions by the UK government,” he said. “The governments of the territories want to self-govern. They don’t want to have the UK parliament imposing legislation on them.”

On the controversial issue of whether the VI’s register of beneficial ownership — a list of who owns which companies in the territory — should be open to all, Mr. Wheatley suggested that the VI should follow the European Union on the matter.

The comments came after the premier told the House of Assembly last month that the expanded VI register due by mid-2025 would not be fully open to the public, but only to parties with “legitimate interests.”

During the BVI Finance forum, Mr. Wheatley noted that the Labour Party’s campaign platform briefly mentioned the overseas territories.

“It essentially talks about rooting out corruption in financial ways: the UK itself, the crown dependencies and the overseas territories,” he said. “Prior to the election, a lot of work had been done by the UK government engaging the overseas territories.”

Though that work previously was carried out under the Conservative government, he said the new UK leaders won’t abandon the project.

“However, Labour is going to want to review it carefully,” he said. “We have to look at some of the headline policies that they will want to pursue. Public registers are something that the UK will want to see, but what we are hoping for is that the UK will align its position with the European Union, where this issue has not been settled as yet.”

Mr. Wheatley stressed that the EU is still deciding its way forward on the issue.

“The European Court of Justice had a decision on public registers, basically saying that you can’t have unrestricted access,” he said. “So this issue is being addressed. And what we would want is for the UK to align its position so that it moves in lock and step with the EU on this.”

OT support

Mr. Wheatley added that the VI has backing from other OTs on the matter.

“The UK does have its own public register,” he said. “However, the territories have said they would like to move with the EU and the development of policy to public registers.”

He reiterated that the VI has accepted the idea of establishing a register open to people with a “legitimate interest.”

“That means courts, individuals, institutions, persons that have a legitimate interest and reason for accessing beneficial information should be able to have it,” he said. “While the EU agrees with that, the longer-term prospect of a full public register for access — that is yet to be determined by the EU.”