Trump ‘laughing' at Starmer's Chagos deal, claims Badenoch
Donald Trump is 'laughing' at Sir Keir Starmer's deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Kemi Badenoch has claimed.
The Tory leader said the US president had 'got a great deal at the expense of the UK ' because Britain will meet the cost of the lease to maintain control of the vital Diego Garcia military base.
Sir Keir claimed the deal would cost £101 million annually, amounting to £3.4 billion over 99 years. However, the true cost will probably exceed £30 billion in cash terms because of rising inflation and additional schemes to fund development projects in Mauritius.
The military base is used by both the UK and the US and while the former will pay for the lease, the latter will continue to cover operating costs.
Mrs Badenoch has labelled the deal with Mauritius 'wasteful' and 'dangerous' and on Friday morning she said it had ' not been done in our national interests '.
She told the BBC Breakfast programme: 'Our country is getting poorer and it is getting weaker because of the decisions that Labour is making.
'Donald Trump is laughing at that Chagos deal, he is welcoming it, because he is not going to have to pay very much, if anything at all.
'He has got a great deal at the expense of the UK. That is not right. It hasn't been done in our national interests.'
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson said the 'Chagos surrender is beyond belief'.
He posted on X: 'Why are we paying a foreign country up to £30bn to take an asset that belongs to Britain? Why are we damaging our long-term national security? Starmer looks like a man with a bizarre and pointless fetish for self-mutilation.'
The White House has expressed support for the deal. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, said the agreement 'secures the long-term, stable and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security'.
Luke Pollard, the UK's armed forces minister, said the US actually pays 'many multiples more' to operate the base than Britain will pay to Mauritius to maintain control of it.
Asked why the US was not contributing to the cost of leasing back the base, Mr Pollard told Times Radio: 'What we are bringing to the deal is the real estate, the UK will be leasing the base and the Americans pay for the operating costs of the base – now that is many multiples more than the leasing cost.'
Mr Pollard rejected a claim made by the Tories that Sir Keir had used 'dodgy accounting' when presenting the cost of the deal.
He told Sky News: 'No. That is not right. It is £3.4 billion rather than the figure that you gave there. And it is calculated using the Treasury's rules and has been verified by the Government Actuary's Department and this is exactly the same way we calculate other long term costs such as pensions, investments in infrastructure or nuclear decommissioning.
'So it is £3.4 billion over 99 years. That represents good value and it is also comparable to other allies leasing bases in the region.'
Ministers argued the deal needed to be done because the UK would have faced legal challenges 'within weeks' which could have jeopardised the operation of the Indian Ocean base.
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