BRITAIN was prepared to land troops on a Caribbean tax haven after Margaret Thatcher’s government suspended local officials and increased Whitehall’s political power over the island, newly declassified papers reveal.

The Turks and Caicos Islands, a British territory, was plunged into crisis in 1986 when locally elected ministers were mired in a corruption scandal.

Britain’s Foreign Office responded by suspending the islands’ constitution and gave more powers to the governor, a move that could have sparked serious unrest.

Conservative foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe feared the local police, who numbered under 100, would be overwhelmed by widespread disorder.

He alerted Royal Navy warship HMS Arrow to wait “just over the horizon” and asked a company of British soldiers in nearby Belize to be “standing by at six hours notice to move if required.”

Britain’s defence adviser in Jamaica and a “military intelligence liaison officer” would also be flown in to Grand Turk to help the governor “co-ordinate military precautions” before the Order in Council was promulgated.

When the legal shake-up was announced in the House of Commons, Labour MP George Foulkes asked: “Will the government refrain from using anything other than civilian forces to deal with law and order on the islands, unless it is absolutely necessary?”

His Tory counterpart Timothy Eggar responded: “The honourable gentleman stressed the need for the use of civilian police rather than other forms of support for law and order, and I share his desire that that process will be used.”

Parliament was not told about the extensive military contingency plans, though violence ultimately did not erupt on the island and the constitution was restored several years later.