Without strong leadership, don't be surprised when countries like Argentina smell weakness and eye up our territories
We should look for ways to strengthen our ties with the Overseas Territories instead of weakening them
This week saw a south-Atlantic gale of outrage after Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding President Javier Milei repeated his country’s entirely bogus claim to the Falkland Islands, with President Donald Trump twisting the knife by saying the USA’s view of the issue was ‘under review’. It came just weeks after Argentina’s footballers brandished a ‘Malvinas’ banner at the World Cup, and alongside government plans to pay Mauritius handsomely for the privilege of handing them Chagos.
These are just the latest flashpoints in a long-running and much broader question of what to do with Britain’s Overseas Territories – 14 tiny specks of land scattered around the world’s oceans, from Bermuda to Gibraltar, Chagos, the Falklands and Tristan da Cunha.
Rather than being embarrassed by embers of empire, Ministers should fan this post-imperial afterglow into a roaring, modern flame
Government Ministers haven’t found a clear or consistent answer to the question yet. Sometimes they sound robust, like this week’s spat with Argentina over the Falklands. But other times they treat the Overseas Territories as faintly embarrassing pieces of post-imperial afterglow, to be remembered with a twinge of guilt every time there’s a hurricane, a lawsuit or a diplomatic spat with a passing warship, and quietly disposed of whenever there’s a plausible excuse. Without strong, clear, consistent leadership, no-one should be surprised when countries like Spain, Argentina and Mauritius smell weakness and start eyeing them up.
What could and should the Overseas Territories become in future? The answer ought to be obvious: they’ve all chosen to be part of the UK, and the UK has always been a global nation, so we should be looking for ways to strengthen our ties instead of weakening them.
The simplest, strongest, safest route would be to offer each Overseas Territory the chance to become a full UK nation like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They would each have a devolution settlement like Wales’s St David’s Day Agreement or Scotland’s Smith Commission, with a devolved government and Westminster MPs as well. Whether they accepted the opportunity would be up to them, and some might be perfectly happy to stay as they are. But there would be a permanent and warm-hearted offer on the table, and the ones that took it up would cement their constitutional status as full and equal parts of the UK, ending nagging questions about their future or long-shot territorial claims from envious neighbours forever.
The new status would be fairer and more legitimate too. By drawing a line under the empire and turning the Overseas Territories into equal parts of the UK, we would have created a modern, post-imperial future for these often-forgotten but important parts of Greater Britain.
It would make economic sense, because they’d have guaranteed access to the entire UK internal market and customs union forever. They would be able to sell everything from Caribbean bananas to Tristan da Cunha lobsters. And they’d have equal rights to the same help and protections as the rest of us if there was a natural disaster or a challenge to their sovereignty, backed up by UK Parliamentary representation for the first time ever, to match what the rest of us take for granted already.
But the biggest benefits would come from the longer-term opportunities these changes would unlock. Making the Territories full and equal parts of the UK would allow us to move beyond endless trust-sapping, trade-blighting sniping about sovereignty to start developing stronger and more profitable ties with previously-grumpy or suspicious neighbours. Imagine if, instead of Argentina imposing sanctions on oil firms that invest in the Falklands, the Islands could become peaceful, profitable and valued trading neighbours for Buenos Aires instead. Making these changes would send a powerful, instant message to the rest of the world that Britain is back as an international trading nation, strengthening far-flung links and creating fully domestic trading posts close to potentially-important future trade partners too.
Rather than being embarrassed by embers of empire, Ministers should fan this post-imperial afterglow into a roaring, modern flame.
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