The Virgin Islands governor should be stripped of his role overseeing Cabinet meetings, leaving the elected members to manage the territory’s affairs on their own, according to Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.
“I think we have to move past the governor being in Cabinet,” the premier told the Beacon in a recent interview. “I think the elected government should be the ones running Cabinet.”
He added that Cabinet ministers are adults who do not require a chairman selected in London.
“The governor doesn’t have a vote in Cabinet — he is just chairing Cabinet — and he’s basically managing the meeting,” he said. “But I think we are grown people. We don’t need to be managed.”
Mr. Wheatley’s stance echoes the view of the recent Constitutional Review Commission, which called for the premier to chair Cabinet in a report released last year ahead of constitutional negotiations set to start soon between the VI and the United Kingdom.
In other OTs
Governor Daniel Pruce did not respond to requests for comment, but a UK-based expert on the overseas territories told the Beacon that London is likely to resist changing the status quo.
“Across the Caribbean [overseas territories], governors still chair the cabinet,” said Peter Clegg, a professor at the University of the West of England who has been monitoring Britain’s relationship with its overseas territories for more than 20 years. “However, in Bermuda they do not. This is a legacy of a more advanced constitution that was agreed in 1968 as a prelude to independence, which of course never happened.”
Mr. Clegg said London likes having oversight of Cabinet discussions.
“The UK is reluctant for other OTs to follow [Bermuda], because it feels that having the governor chairing the Cabinet is a helpful mechanism to oversee policy and other related discussions,” he explained.
The professor added that the arrangement is likely to stay in place here unless the VI starts preparing in earnest for independence — a scenario he sees as unlikely for now.
“I think at the moment, the ‘Bermuda model’ would only be agreed if it was seen as part of a staged and ironclad move to independence,” Mr. Clegg said.
Mr. Wheatley said in the recent interview that his government will seek more autonomy in the coming constitutional negotiations but that he doesn’t expect to push for independence any time soon (see story on page one).
Other powers
Mr. Clegg added that the VI governor also has more power in other areas than his Bermuda counterpart.
“A linked point is that the governor in the BVI has a reserved legislative power in case of urgent necessity to comply with any international obligation applicable to the BVI,” he said. “In Bermuda, the governor has no such reserve power.”
The Constitutional Review Commission also recommended scaling back other governor powers as the territory moves towards greater self-governance, including by adding requirements to consult the premier more often.
But Mr. Clegg said the UK is likely to push back on such requests, in part because it still has concerns following the recent the Commission of Inquiry.
“In relation to the ‘grown-ups’ comment — that’s a fair one to make, but I think the UK remains wary after recent critical Commission of Inquiry reports,” he said.
Ups and downs
Despite his call for change, the premier also indicated that he has a good relationship with Mr. Pruce, who took up the post in January of last year.
“This governor and I, I think we have a good understanding,” Mr. Wheatley said. “We are doing some good work together.”
However, he said his relationship with the previous governor, John Rankin, was sometimes “tough” — especially as his government worked on the COI reforms under the threat of direct rule from the UK.
“I am appreciative of the way that [Mr. Rankin] was able to assist the territory,” the premier said, adding, “It was pretty tough with [Mr.] Rankin at some points.
There was a tough point in the relationship between the UK government and the Virgin Islands government. I accept that. I don’t take any of it personally.”
Mr. Wheatley explained that part of the tension centred around the order in council that allows London to impose direct rule if the VI government doesn’t keep its promise to implement the COI reforms on schedule.
“I don’t like the order in council,” the premier said. “I do think that it’s undignified to be threatened with the suspension of your Constitution, and that goes to the situation where one man rules the whole territory. That’s undignified. I don’t think that’s something we should allow to continue.”
‘Colonial tool’
Reiterating past complaints that he has made on the world stage, the premier said the direct-rule threat is a “colonial tool” that harkens back to the era of the British empire.
“But I am heartened by the fact that the [UK] government there has assured us that that is not something that they want to continue indefinitely,” he said. “I just think that they want to ensure that the deficiencies, areas of weakness, in governance are corrected.”
He added that bumps in the road in the UK-VI relationship are no surprise, and he said he doesn’t take them personally.
“This whole concept about orders in councils: It could be policy, it could be legislation, it could be how we go about the whole process,” he said. “But, you know, any relationship will have difficulties, challenges, struggles, disagreements. We don’t hold any of those things against anyone personally. But it is my job to represent the interests of the people of the territory, and [the governor] also had a job to do.”
Assessments ongoing
UK Overseas Territories Minister Stephen Doughty, who didn’t speak to the media during a visit to the territory in November despite requests from the Beacon, has said a decision on the order in council will be made by mid-2025 following assessments by the governor and the elected government and public consultations on the COI reforms.
Besides chairing Cabinet, the governor has responsibilities for external affairs, defence and internal security, and he is also head of the public service and chair of the National Security Council.
Shortly before leaving the territory in January 2024, Mr. Rankin said in a scathing quarterly review of the COI reforms that his successor should get extra powers because the VI government was moving too slowly.
Mr. Pruce, however, didn’t pursue those extra powers.