The Cayman Islands’ new leader has said she does not support the United Kingdom’s overseas territories – including Cayman – having representation in the UK parliament.
Speaking on Radio Cayman’s ‘For the Record’ show, Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said, “For me, personally, I think it would be a retrograde step.”
Host Orrett Connor broached the possibility of members of parliament for overseas territories during an interview with the premier and Governor Jane Owen on Friday, 1 Dec.
O’Connor-Connolly stressed that Cayman already has financial independence and a “very strong modern constitution”.
“I think that it’s much better if we took a collaborative approach – one that’s also based on the premise of consultation,” she said.
The reason it would be a retrograde step, she said, is because “we will be entering there as a severe minority, and the voice could be drowned out”.
The premier suggested that, instead, Cayman should keep the relationship with the UK it is building on now.
“All of our people can channel it up through their 19 representatives and then to the governor and on,” she said.
“If necessary, the leaders – the leader of government as well as opposition – may sometimes go across there and have a conversation and negotiate.”
This allows Cayman to have a more equal partnership “than trying to be subsumed into an already thousands of years [old] establishment in Westminster,” she told Connor.
“I think our democracy is alive and well and the recent events stand up [as] testament to that.”
Modern relationship
In response to the same question, Owen said, “I think that it would be a conversation that would be open to be had as part of this modern relationship.”
However, she agreed that it would be “quite a complicated step” that would have a lot of “collateral implications”.
This would come from an involvement, and a much closer relationship, with domestic British policies, she said.
“So, I think it would just be something we would have to think through the benefits of.”
The governor said the premier is right in that Cayman currently has a “direct line into our ministers”.
“I know that’s not the same as, you know, going via Parliament, sitting every day, but it is quite direct and it is quite impactful, and we probably want to hold on to that,” she said.
Representation debate
In March 2020, the Representation of the People, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories Bill was put to the UK government for consideration.
If enacted, the draft law would have given nine overseas territories and Crown dependencies representation in the UK parliament.
In November that year, then Governor Martyn Roper told the Compass the UK government had no intention of taking forward the proposed legislation.
A House of Commons research briefing was published in February this year entitled, ‘Representing the Overseas Territories in the UK Parliament and Government’.
It sets out UK ministerial responsibility for the OTs, debates on their representation in the UK Parliament, challenges raised, and proposals to strengthen OTs’ scrutiny on legislation.
The briefing said past objections include the challenges of equal representation, the potential for dominance by larger OTs, undermining autonomy, and reducing access to MPs.
It added that proponents argue it would strengthen ties and enable territories to have a voice on issues that impact them, such as international affairs.
In April 2023, the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee launched a new inquiry on the status of the UK’s OTs in the 21st century.
It received evidence until 4 Sept. and is considering both the internal governance of the territories and their relationship with the UK.
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