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.