Most days, there is a cool breeze. The private villa is located above a secluded rocky bay and set in a tropical garden of palms and exotic fruit trees. From the balcony you can gaze at the sea below and the green humps of nearby islands – a “scattered Pleiades”, as the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor put it. There is an infinity pool. And a terrace, perfect for cocktails against a pink Caribbean sunset. Tavistock it isn’t. Yet the villa on the north shore of Tortola, the biggest of the British Virgin Islands, was where Sir Geoffrey Cox ended up staying earlier this year as he juggled the responsibilities of his first and second jobs. It was a circus act that put the MP for Torridge and West Devon in the midst of a Westminster sleaze scandal so all-encompassing that it led to the prime minister having to deny the UK is a corrupt country. According to local sources, Cox stayed at the luxury estate on Cooper Bay, and his commute to work would have been a pleasant one. It took 10 minutes by car: up the hill and down into Road Town, the BVI capital. His destination: a modern office block, Ritter House, built on a mangrove swamp. It overlooks a busy harbour of sailing boats and giant cruise ships. It was from there on the third floor that Cox has been taking part in a bitter dispute with London. The row has distinctly colonial overtones. It has pitted the islands’ elected premier, Andrew Fahie, against the UK’s former governor Augustus Jaspert, known as Gus. In January Jaspert appointed a senior British judge, Sir Gary Hickinbottom, to investigative longstanding corruption allegations against the BVI government. They include claims of cronyism and the alleged misuse of public cash for a doomed Miami-bound airline. A prominent barrister as well as an MP, Cox has been defending Fahie. Local people point out the ironic symmetry of the situation. Cox’s role in the commission of inquiry – taking place 4,000 miles from Westminster – has plunged the UK government into a crisis of its own. Apart from a statement issued this week on his behalf, Cox has kept quiet about his lucrative BVI side-hustle. His trip there, he insisted, had been signed off by the chief whip, and he had never made any “secret of his professional activities”. On Friday Cox’s parliamentary aide said the MP was not responsible for booking the villa, which is where he must have continued his constituency work during his stay on Tortola. “It was not done by him and was for the whole legal team, who occupied it throughout the inquiry,” Alison Ramsay told the Guardian. She added: “Sir Geoffrey has no idea how much it was rented for.” Yet the optics of a parliamentarian being in the Caribbean on paid legal work, when being an MP is supposed to be a full-time job, has been a hard one to explain this week. More so for Cox than many other MPs.
Several Tories earn large sums from outside consultancies. But only Cox is set to make more than £1m in 2021 from his non-parliamentary work for the international law firm Withers. Since he became an MP in 2005 he has earned at least £5.92m, the Guardian estimates. Shrugging off the criticism, Cox said it was up to his Devon electors whether they voted for him, a “distinguished professional in his field”, as he terms himself. He said he would cooperate with an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner. This came about after Cox appeared to use his taxpayer-funded MP’s office on 14 September to beam in remotely to the BVI for an inquiry session. This week Cox’s chambers said he was abroad again. Not in the eastern Caribbean, it turned out, but in another offshore tax haven, the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, according to the Mirror. As well as virtual appearances before the inquiry, Cox has twice visited the BVI, in April and May, and again in June this year. He took advantage of temporary Covid rules that allowed him to vote by proxy. Under Covid rules, Cox was forced to quarantine in his seaside villa for several days. He was later spotted in Road Town restaurants and cafes, meeting BVI government officers for whom he is acting, one person said.
So what took Cox to the BVI? The islands’ history is colourful. European invaders have come and gone: the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, a Spanish invasion force, buccaneers and pirates. And then the Dutch, followed by the British in the shape of English planters. Four centuries on, local people say this exploitative history of sugar plantations and slave estates looms large. Fahie heads a nationalist government at odds with a more powerful and hostile bloc: Britain. “He’s a clever wordsmith and old-time son of the soil. His roots go back a long way,” said one resident, who declined to be named, citing the fact islanders all know each other. The resident added: “Fahie knows the system inside out. He is not quite as buffoonish as the British prime minister. But he’s a gymnast with words and quite Boris-like.” Since winning election, Fahie has repeatedly attacked the governor. He accused Jaspert of arrogance and “damaging and reckless” behaviour. Giving evidence to the inquiry, he said London was in no position to lecture, given its own sleazy record under Johnson of rule-breaking and giving favours to friends. At the same time, the problems flagged up by the inquiry are real, residents concede. They include the misuse of public funds, rampant drug smuggling, and a failure to rebuild after a hurricane, with pupils still being taught in tents after their high school was flattened. Cox is due to appear next week in the wrap-up stages of the inquiry, which is due to report in January. One possible outcome is that the commission will decide to impose direct rule on the BVI, something that happened in the Turks and Caicos Islands – another British overseas territory – in 2009 after similar corruption charges. Or there may be governance changes.
On Friday the Cooper Bay villa, with its glass balconies, coral stone tiles and spectacular internal boulder, was empty. Neighbours said they had seen no sign of Cox. The villa’s agent, Smiths Gore, declined to comment. Its website describes the property – which has a three-bedroom main house and a two-bedroom guest villa – in gushing terms: “Situated just above the stunning shoreline this brand new build redefines luxury and contemporary island living. There is simply nothing to compare.” It continues: “Both [villas] embrace this ocean peninsular with great elegance. They are separated by a unique and dramatic rock formation and the contrast of this natural sculpture and the modernity of the buildings is truly breathtaking.” During the April-November low season, the complex costs $7,100 (£5,300) a week to rent. The bill for Cox’s stay would have been picked up by the BVI government and taxpayers. It has put aside $5m for commission costs, $3m of which has already been spent. “I think $1,000 an hour is pretty sweet,” one Virgin Islander mused on Friday, when asked about the Cox affair. Another said the territory was a real place rather than a “paradise”. “Our reality is as dense and complex and gritty as yours. We have kids being educated since the hurricane in tents. Yes we are dirty, but we are dirty like London is dirty,” they added.