UK government heads off MPs' attempts to force new law on Crown Dependencies
A CONSTITUTIONAL crisis may have been averted for now after legislation that could have seen controversial new laws forcing on Guernsey and the other Crown Dependencies was pulled from the UK parliament.
A group of senior MPs from across the political divide had sought to table amendments to the UK’s Financial Services (Implementation of Legislation) Bill that would have required Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man introduce public registers of beneficial ownership in the name of transparency by the end of next year. Campaigners claim it would reveal who owns assets in the islands.
The move sparked a furious backlash from the island’s governments, who warned it was unconstitutional and unwarranted because of the Crown Dependencies high standards of financial services regulation and effective operation of their existing registers of beneficial ownership
Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds, posting on Twitter, said: ‘The Government have pulled the Financial Services Bill from the business today. There were amendments on preventing a “race to the bottom” on financial deregulation and on transparency for the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies that we had hoped to pass.’
The MP, who was one of those tabling one of the amendments, also said: 'This has nakedly been pulled to prevent the Government being defeated. A Government without a Commons majority is in office but not in power. How long can this go on?'
