Donald Trump has signed off on Keir Starmer’s surrender of the Chagos Islands to Mauritus, giving the UK the go-ahead to finalise the handover. No. 10 said the details are now being completed between the UK and the island in the Indian Ocean, which has never owned the Chagos Islands.
Despite uproar at home and warnings it will undermine Britain’s security abroad and embolden China, a Downing Street spokesman said this lunchtime: “I think the finalisation of the deal’s ongoing, but we’ll obviously provide an update as and when we’ve got one.” Asked if the UK is still waiting on President Trump to sign off on the deal, he replied: “I mean, you will have seen from the president that he recognised the strength of the deal. I think we are now working with the Mauritian government to finalise the deal and sign the treaty.”
“My understanding is it’s now between us and the Mauritian government to finalise the deal following the discussions with the US.”
It is understood that the agreement will not be put back to Donald Trump before it’s signed off by Sir Keir and Mauritus.
In response to the news, MP Rupert Lowe blasted: “As usual, the British taxpayer suffers. AGAIN.”
“We desperately need a Government that puts the British people at the very top of the agenda.
“What a nice change that would make…”
Pressure group The Bruges Group added: “The Chagos surrender is now poised to go ahead.
“The very Ministers tasked with defending Britain’s interests are shrinking our territory and diminishing our global standing in an act of needless ritual humiliation.
“Voters will judge this government harshly at the ballot box.”
Sir Keir’s spokesman said he couldn’t provide a further timeline for deal going forward, but insisted the deal will go for a vote by MPs before being signed.
It’s believed the deal will cost British taxpayers billions, despite the fact the UK is giving the islands away.
In return for handing the archipleigo over, which contains a key UK-US military base, Sir Keir will then lease the base back for tens of millions of pounds a year.
While the Prime Minister has refused to put a total cost on the deal, it’s thought it will run to tens of billions despite the ongoing cost of living crisis at home.
Even a former Labour security minister, Ex First Sea Lord Admiral West, has said the giveaway is a strategic misstep that will endanger Britain.
In the foreword to the report by the Policy Exchange think tank, Lord West argued that the planned surrender of the islands to China ally Mauritius risked undermining the UK’s relationship with the United States.
In the excoriating takedown of one of the Government’s defining foreign policy decisions, Lord West argued: “For reasons that are difficult to fathom, the Government risks jeopardising both of these assets as it apparently remains determined to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – the home of our vital Diego Garcia military base – to Mauritius.
“As I have argued elsewhere, surrendering sovereignty over the Chagos Islands would be an irresponsible act, which would put our strategic interests – and the interests of our closest allies – in danger.”
Lord West dismissed Sir Keir’s claims that the deal with Mauritius, which will cost Britain upwards of £9 billion over the next 99 years, makes the long-term future of the key military “more secure”.
He wrote: “How can the base – which serves as an indispensable naval, air, and intelligence asset – be more secure under the sovereignty of another nation, rather than under our own?
“Developments since the proposed deal’s announcement only several months ago demonstrate just how shaky its foundations are. American consent, which the UK Government has presented as so crucial to the negotiation, may well collapse with the arrival of the next Administration. The new Mauritian Government itself has in effect rejected the terms by re-opening negotiations to extract more cash.
“Meanwhile, the wide condemnation of the Chagossian diaspora, and neighbouring Maldives, punctures the argument that we have fostered goodwill with the ‘Global South’ by righting a past wrong.”
