© Alamy
Delegations from BVI (pictured) and other BOTs claim the UK parliament overreached itself with its plan to impose public registers of share ownership.
Delegations from BVI (pictured) and other BOTs claim the UK parliament overreached itself with its plan to impose public registers of share ownership.
Leaders of British overseas territories are to hold two days of showdown talks with ministers in an attempt to reverse the UK government's decision to end secrecy for offshore tax havens.
An unexpected vote by MPs at the beginning of May to impose public registers of share ownership in all the BOTs has triggered angry resistance including street protests, boycotts of the Queen's birthday celebrations, and even demands for constitutional separation.
The disagreements have the potential to create the biggest constitutional crisis between London and the territories for decades, which an apologetic 35-minute phone call from Theresa May and visits to some of the BOTs by the Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad has so far failed to soothe.
The territories, which include the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, fear an end to tax secrecy will undermine the financial services industries on which local economies depend since privacy-seeking investors will simply move their portfolios to other secretive regimes.
Comment: Russia and China are not only finding ways to ward off US attacks, they are finding opportunities to grow from them.