Dame (Barking)
(Lab):...For the sake of clarity, let me just say that, in
the past, Conservatives have used this power when they legislated
to ensure that capital punishment was abolished in all our overseas
territories. A Labour Government used the power to ensure that we
brought to an end discrimination on the grounds of sexuality in our
overseas territories. One of us—I never remember which—used the
power to intervene in the Turks and Caicos when there
were problems with the administration of
governance...
Sir (North West Norfolk)
(Con):...I am concerned that the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office will be required to work incredibly closely
with the Governments of those territories—particularly those of
the BVI and the Cayman Islands, and to some extent those of
the Turks and Caicos Islands and Bermuda—to
make sure that, over the next few years, it puts in a huge amount
of effort, knowledge sharing and capacity building.
My right hon. Friend will be more aware than anyone that, under
the International Development Act 2002, the Department for
International Development is the first port of call for financial
assistance when something goes wrong in the territories. He and I
obviously remember what happened in Montserrat, when DFID quite
rightly came to the rescue, and when the Government of
the Turks and Caicos Islands in effect went
bust, DFID came up with a very large loan. That is why it is
incredibly important that successful economies, such as that of
the BVI, can transition to the new world in which they are going
to have to live...
...If we move too quickly and without a decent transition,
many of the corporate registrations will not stay in the BVI, the
Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla
and so on: they will move to places such as Delaware, Panama,
Venezuela, Nebraska and Equatorial Guinea—which my right hon.
Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield and I know well, as we
have both visited it. Unless we are incredibly careful, that
displacement will take place and, as the right hon. Member for
Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne) pointed out, it will take
place to the Crown dependencies...
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