Despite officially a “fact-finding and familiarisation visit in relation to taxation, [the] EU, financial services and political matters” the visit ignited rumours a Channel Island split was imminent.
As reported by International Adviser on Monday, following the announcement of the trip local news services began to speculate about the ‘real’ reasons behind the visit, with one Isle of Man based radio station, Manx Radio, running a story headlined “Are the Channel Islands preparing to split from the UK – and if they did, could we be next?”
However, in an interview given to the BBC today, Le Sueur said no talks had looked at independence and described the rumours of a crown dependency bid for freedom as a “figment of imagination”.
