The Leader of the Opposition (officially the Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the British Virgin Islands) is the leader of the largest

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

that is not in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. Under the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

the Governor is required to appoint a member of the

recommended by a majority of the elected members of the House who are members of any opposition party whose numerical strength in the House is greater than that of any other opposition party, or if no such person exists, the member of the House of Assembly who in the judgement of the Governor is best able to command the support of the members of the House in opposition to the Government.Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007, article 70(2) Prior to the introduction of the current Constitution, which codified the position, the

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

, by convention, led the largest party which is not part of the government: where one party wins outright this is the party leader of the second largest political party in the

. However, in 1990 Cyril Romney was appointed Leader of the Opposition as an Independent and in 1995 Walwyn Brewley was appointed despite leading the party with the third largest number of seats. The Leader of the Opposition is normally viewed as an alternative

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

. On 24 March, 2025

Myron Walwyn Myron Vernel Walwyn (born 22 February 1972) is a Virgin Islander politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition since March 2025. He is the former Minister of Education and Culture and Member for the Sixth District in the House of Assemb ...

was appointed as the most recent leader of the opposition.

Overview

To date a total of fourteen people (all men) have served as Leader of the Opposition - over twice the number who have served as Premier or Chief Minister. Every person who has served as Chief Minister or Premier has also served as Leader of the Opposition at some point. No person has ever served consecutive terms as Leader of the Opposition. On five occasions has the Leader of the Opposition changed between elections: * In 1977, when Austin Henley died. * In 1988, when Ralph O'Neal left the United Party to join the Government. * In 2017, when

Andrew Fahie Andrew Alturo Fahie (, born 7 August 1970) is a British Virgin Islands politician who served as Premier of the British Virgin Islands from 2019 to 2022. He was also the chairman of the Virgin Islands Party in the British Virgin Islands from ...

ousted Julian Fraser as leader of the opposition

Virgin Islands Party The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) is a List of political parties in the British Virgin Islands, political party in the British Virgin Islands. It is presently led by Natalio Wheatley. It is the oldest active political party in the British Virgin I ...

. * In 2018, when a split in the ruling government party led to Ronnie Skelton becoming the leader of the largest non-Government party. * In 2022 when the opposition National Democratic Party joined the

in a unity government, and left Julian Fraser as the member of the House of Assembly who was not in either party or in Cabinet.

2015 deadlock and controversy

In 2014, whilst Ralph O'Neal was Leader of the Opposition he stepped down as leader of the

in favour of Julian Fraser. However O'Neal remained the official Leader of the Opposition under the Territory's constitution until he stood down in subsequent general election in June 2015. In that election only two members of the opposition Virgin Islands Party won their seats - Julian Fraser and Andrew Fahie. Subsequently Fraser and Fahie argued over who should be named as Leader of the Opposition; Fahie believed he commanded majority support within the party and should take over as party leader following the general election defeat. As the Constitution required that the Leader of the Opposition commanded a support of the "majority" of the opposition members, and the only two opposition members disagreed, there was an impasse. Governor John Duncan gave the men a month to resolve their differences, but they were unable to do so, and eventually the Governor appointed Fraser as the official Leader of the Opposition. Fahie would later oust Fraser as party leader, and would then be appointed as Leader of the Opposition in his stead.

Leaders of the Opposition from 1967

Prior to 1967 politicians were not elected on a party political basis, and thus Leaders of the Opposition only came into being with the introduction of

party politics ''Party Politics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of political science. The journal's editor is Paul Webb of the University of Sussex, UK. It has been in publication since 1995 and is currently published b ...

and Ministerial rule after the 1967 general election. The following is a list of the Leaders of the Opposition in the British Virgin Islands from 1967 to date. Party affiliations are as follows: *VIP—

*NDP— National Democratic Party *CCM—Concerned Citizens Movement *PVIM—Positive Virgin Islands Movement *VIDP—

VI Democratic Party The VI Democratic Party (VIDP or DP) was a political party of the British Virgin Islands. It was originally formed by Dr Q. William Osborne during the first session of the Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands under the new cons ...

(defunct) *UP— United Party (defunct) *PU—Progressives United

Footnotes

{{BVILOTOs

Opposition leaders Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...