10/02/23

CROWN DEPENDENCIES: Jersey and Guernsey ‘risk sleep-walking into crisis’, warns ex-chief minister.

As published on jerseyeveningpost.com, Thursday 9 February, 2023.

Jersey and Guernsey risk ‘sleep-walking’ into a crisis if they do not consider changing the islands’ constitutional relationship with the UK, Guernsey’s former chief minister has warned.

Gavin St Pier, guest speaker at yesterday’s Chamber of Commerce lunch, highlighted that despite being responsible for the islands, Brexit had shown that ‘if push came to shove, the UK’s position would prevail’.

Deputy St Pier said: ‘If we have arrived at a point where conventions only hold for so long as its tactically convenient, then we are at risk.

‘This is a significant threat the islands face. Engaging with these issues is not on local agendas and will never be a priority for UK ministers and their civil servants, so all advice will be to keep our heads down, not to rock the boat and to let sleeping dogs lie.

‘That systemic inertia from the establishment risks us sleep-walking into a constitutional crisis on a topic and at a time not of our choosing. It could be the next LVCR, it could be the next beneficial ownership of companies, or it could be next fishing issue.’

Deputy St Pier said the ‘most serious direct threat’ to the Channel Islands during Theresa May’s premiership came over legislation on beneficial ownership of companies, which he said was attempted to be passed ‘without the islands’ consent’. That ‘car crash’ was only avoided as then-Lord Chancellor David Gauke ‘did the right thing’ and withdrew the bill, he said.

‘I have little confidence that the same outcome would have been achieved had Boris Johnson or Liz Truss been Prime Minister at the time,’ Deputy St Pier said.

The former chief minister said UK ministers ‘should recognise they are wearing two hats, one representing the UK government of the day, and another representing our governments’ positions’.

He added: ‘That’s all well and good if all those positions are aligned, but it starts to get stressed if our positions diverge from the UK’s or even among ourselves. During the Brexit process, the civil service did an exemplary job of ensuring that all positions were identified and understood, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that if push came to shove, the UK’s position would prevail.’

Offering a solution that would help bolster the islands’ own autonomy, Deputy St Pier said that after 75 years of self-governing democracy, the time was right to ‘push for’ its own Privy Counsellors – who provide advice when it comes to confirming legislation passed by the States.

He said: ‘The case could be built on the whole process benefiting from the islands having their own, locally respected, luminaries providing greater continuity of experience and advice than can be provided by UK ministers. UK government input may still be appropriate in the process, but only where its interests – for example in relation to the UK’s international obligations – are validly engaged.

‘I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be entirely capable of offering up worthy, competent and capable Privy Counsellors – a judgment made all the easier, without mentioning any names, when looking at some of those who have [been] appointed Privy Counsellors in the UK in recent years.’