- Chris Robertshaw says IoM government has not balanced books since 2008.
- Island is now living off the interest from reserves built up during the boom years of the 80s and 90s.
- His concerns come after recent warnings about a technical default and threat to the Island’s credit rating.
- Mr Robertshaw has championed the Isle of Man throughout his political career, and gave up his retirement to continue public service.
- His aim is make government more efficient.
- But ‘obese’ government needs reform, says ex-MHK
Ex-Minister of Social Care Chris Robertshaw fears that the Isle of Man’s government spending is not sustainable.
In a wide-ranging interview, which Expose.News will publish over the next month, Mr Robertshaw said, ‘our financial system is not focusing up to this in the way it needs to. We’re not living within our budget.’
The ex-Deputy Speaker of the House of Keys said the Isle of Man had ‘lost 200 million pounds of our income through a reduction in our portion of the VAT fund from the UK.’
He warned that the Island had never recovered and that the financial risks posed a threat to democracy.
He added: ‘We have failed to balance our books and we have lived on the interest on those reserves that we’d accumulated in previous years….And now it’s becoming dangerous….Our government is too big, and sadly through the way our ministerial system of governments has developed, we are losing elements of our democracy.
So for those of us who continue to care hugely about it, in response, a group of us are trying to ensure these key issues of balancing the books and really redeveloping, if you like, or reenforcing, our democratic process, become a significant part of the narrative for the next election, general election, which takes place in September, 2026.’
Mr Robertshaw is forming a campaign group to call for structual change in government. As MHK for Douglas East, he stood on a ticket for policy and reform, and was a persistent and vocal advocate for change in the House.
‘The group is currently coming together – the name will be finalised soon along with the website, Facebook, email address and so on,’ Mr Robertshaw added.
Mr Robertshaw’s concerns come after worried residents spoke about an unrelaterd ongoing court case which may leave the public purse exposed to tens of millions in losses.
Experts have warned a massive government payout – particularly involving the Treasusy – would send shockwaves through the financial system.
Ironically, the court case in question – over a property dispute in lthe ong-ruuning Lord Street debacle – is relatively unknown and ‘flown under the radar of most observers,’ according to one Douglas businessman.
The costs could top £100 million, sources close to the case have warned.
For the past seven years a developer called Sondica Group Incorporated has been suing the IoM government over alleged corruption and malfeasance in connection with the calamitous Lord Street revamp.
The two government departments being sued are on the rack for any losses.
Which means that a bumper payout is likely to affect the island’s gold-standard credit rating on Wall Street and in the City of London – and, in turn, cause a technical default of the £400 million loan which the IoM took out in 2021 as bond holders could demand all of their money back now.
Read the full transcript of the our interview with Chris Robertshaw below:
My name’s Chris Robertshaw.
I was in business on the Isle Of Man for close to 35 years. I then went in, towards the end of my working life, into politics.
I went into politics as an MHK, A member of the House of Keys. I started off as Minister of Social Care with responsibility for all the difficult stuff, like the benefits system, housing, children and families, adult elderly care, mental health, very difficult.
But it taught me a huge lesson about what was wrong with government and why it didn’t work properly. And that became very much my passion.
At that stage, the chief minister asked me to become Minister of Policy and Reform. As I’ve already explained, I was very much by this time focused on what on earth was wrong with the way we operated. And I spent a year looking at this in this new role, to try and establish what we needed to do.
And I got a pretty clear view then of what needed to be done and put it to the council of Ministers. And the council ministers decided, ‘Nope, we don’t want to do that. We’re too comfortable.’ And I felt that at that stage, the right thing for me to do was step down. If they didn’t want to reform government, I would’ve been happy – By this time, I’m getting all well into my sixties – I would’ve been happy to step down from politics, but I felt guilty that there really was a problem that was growing with regard to how our government performed and that I needed to do something about it.
And I then in the next election, stood again as a constituency MHK, with a manifesto called The Little Green Book of Government Reform. And I went round and I said to my constituents, ‘Please read my manifesto and if you don’t agree with me, please don’t vote for me.’
And I’d rather hope that I wouldn’t get in. I was there out of a sense of guilt, but they put me back in again. And so I spent the next five years continuing to argue the case. Again, I couldn’t move the mountain and stepped down, retired. And now I’m into my early seventies.
I am increasingly concerned, but we still haven’t done what we need to do. However, what I should do is step back and explain a very, very quick description of the Isle of man. The Isle of Man in the 1970s was pretty poor place, but it developed its finance section. You can interpret those words in any which way, but it became very well off, it created and built reserves and spent a lot of money on infrastructure. And sadly though, with those great successes became political and bureaucratic complacency. And the government grew in size and has continued to grow in size. And now is obese. It that is the fundamental problem.
Unlike bigger nations that have their own currency, their own fiat currency, who can print money, the Isle of Man can’t because of course it sits within the Sterling area and we have to balance our books. But we haven’t balanced our books since 2008 or post 2008. It was actually by the time it really washed up on our shores, the financial crash of 2008/2010, we lost 200 million pounds of our income through a reduction in our portion of the VAT fund from the UK. And since that time, we have failed to balance our books. And we have lived on the interest on those reserves that we’d accumulated in previous years that I’ve just discussed. And now it’s becoming dangerous. But somehow or other, our financial system is not focusing up to this in the way it needs to.
We’re not living within our budget. Our government is too big. And sadly, through the way our ministerial system of governments is developed, we are losing elements of our democracy.
So for those of us who continue to care hugely about it, in response, a group of us are trying to ensure these key issues of balancing the books and really redeveloping, if you like, or reenforcing, our democratic process, become a significant part of the narrative for the next election, general election, which takes place in September, 2026.
It’s not really about policy, it’s about, ‘So we have a good sound responsive structure of governments or not?’ And the answer at the moment is that we haven’t.
