Just when the Concerned Citizens of Anguilla were expecting that the Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab would be dealing expeditiously with the island’s complaints about the Goods and Services Tax, he is no longer the Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and First Secretary of State, at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
He lost his appointments on Wednesday, September 15, 2021, as a result of a Cabinet Reshuffle by Prime Minister Boris Johnson – nothing to do with Anguilla but probably a matter involving Afghanistan.
He has now been appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice.
His successor, as Foreign Secretary of State, is the Rt. Hon. Elizabeth Truss, a Conservative MP, for South West Norfolk, who will remain Minister for Women and Equalities – an appointment she has held since 2019. It is hoped that one of her first engagements will be to respond to the letter and petition from the Concerned Citizens of Anguilla.
The correspondence from the Concerned Citizens was also copied to Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbleton, Minister of State at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, with responsibility for the Overseas Territories including Anguilla. He has been here before and so has first-hand knowledge of life on the island. He visited Anguilla just after Hurricane Irma in September 2017 which caused a significant amount of damage, and led to the UK Government providing a humanitarian grant of 60 million pounds sterling to the Government for various public sector projects.
