"This is not about any singular individual, it is not even about any singular party, people of the Virgin Islands (VI) this is about country," he said on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, edition of the Honestly Speaking show.

UK dictating CoI affairs in VI - Skelton-Cline

Skelton-Cline remarked that while the UK handles its CoI business and affairs in the UK, he said as it related to the CoI in the VI, the UK wants to handle the VI's affairs.

"You want to handle our stuff in our house and then tell us how our house is going to run, it's a different construct... a different kind of outcome," he said.

In that case, Skelton-Cline said the outcome of the UK-sponsored VI CoI can suspend the local constitution, bring down governments, and put the territory back some 50 years.

"This is about our country, this is about our collective destiny... where you can have wholesale, on the interpretation and the recommendation of a sole Commissioner, the suspension of the constitution in part or whole," he said.

Skelton-Cline said the Ministry of Finance can also fall under the purview of the UK, where the mandate of the UK government as it relates to the financial services sector will be implemented.

Claude O. Skelton-Cline said the Ministry of Finance can also fall under the purview of the UK, where the mandate of the UK government as it relates to the financial services sector will be implemented.

The outcome of CoI could be damaging to VI

"Public officers, public servants you let the UK come in here... the government will be downsized. The jobs and employment that you enjoy now will not be anymore because your elected official priorities are going to de different from the elected officials in the House of Commons in the UK," he said.

According to the Man of the Cloth, while he is pro-Virgin Islands (VI) and the future of the country, Skelton-Cline remarked that he is not in favour of a British takeover at the expense of the weak and powerless.