Above: Cayman Premier Alden McLaughlin

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin is congratulating United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron on his party’s re-election.

In a statement, he said it was “not without relief that we have learned that the Conservatives won the majority of the national vote in yesterday’s United Kingdom elections and that David Cameron has returned to Number 10 Downing Street.”

McLaughlin said he believed that a win by Ed Miliband’s Labour Party “would have had dire consequences for the Cayman Islands and other Overseas Territories, especially in the area of beneficial ownership of companies based in their jurisdictions.”

“We have vehemently opposed forced beneficial ownership, which Labour proposed, because it could damage our very important financial services industry,” he said.

That issue became a major topic in the election in February when Miliband told British Overseas Territories “we would have six months to create public registers and if we didn’t, we would be added to a tax haven blacklist.”

“I again congratulate Mr. Cameron and the UK,” he said. “It is a comfort to know that we will be working with a UK government with which we are familiar.”