In his first public speech since stepping down as Bailiff in July, Sir Philip told the Institute of Directors that Jersey needed to speak and act for itself, and suggested that the Island began preparing for independence from the UK in the event that the relationship broke down.
Referring to recent criticism by the UK peer Lord Wallace, who described the prospect of independent Channel Islands as ‘horrifying’, Sir Philip said: ‘If we want to preserve our judicial independence and our political autonomy, we have to assert ourselves. I do not want to overstate the case, but we do not have many political friends in Westminster.
‘There are too many people like Lord Wallace, who have little or no knowledge of our constitutional history and who make misplaced assumptions about our financial services industry and our autonomy on the basis of media stories instead of hard evidence.’
