The beleaguered premier of the Turks and Caicos islands on Tuesday lashed out at the UK’s “draconian” plans to oust him and reimpose a colonial yoke on the Caribbean islands’ 32,000 “freedom loving” inhabitants.

Britain is reportedly making preparations to seize control of the dependent territory after an official probe found signs of “political amorality” and a high probability of “systemic corruption”. The moves were denounced by Michael Misick, the first minister, who called on the international community to intervene against “the strong arm of modern day colonialism”.