British Virgin Islands should be temporarily returned to UK rule, inquiry says

The British Virgin Islands should have its constitution suspended, elected government dissolved and effectively be returned to direct rule from London, a highly critical inquiry into governance in the British overseas territory said.

The report is not directly linked to the arrest on Thursday of the island’s elected leader Premier Andrew Fahie on charges of money laundering and conspiring to import cocaine. But British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said then that the arrest demonstrated the importance of the Commission’s work.

Friday’s recommendation came in a report ordered in 2021 by Queen Elizabeth’s representative on the island, Governor John Rankin, to investigate “the corruption, abuse of office, and other serious dishonesty” in the territory’s governance.

The inquiry was led by British judge Gary Hickinbottom.

“He has concluded with a particularly heavy heart that unless the most drastic and urgent steps are taken, the current situation with elected officials deliberately ignoring the tenets of good governance will go on indefinitely,” Rankin told a news conference presenting the report.

“He notes that the people of the BVI deserve better, and that the UK government owes them an obligation to protect them from such abuses and assist them to achieve their aspirations for self government as a modern democratic state.”

Any decision to suspend parts of the BVI constitution would fall to the British government, which did not immediately comment.