Mauritius PM boasts of 'great victory' on Chagos Islands after Keir Starmer agrees Brits will pay £30BILLION to keep military base after handing over the British territory

Daily Mail​

23-05-2025

Keir Starmer is facing a storm over handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and paying £30billion for the privilege today.
Ministers have insisted the deal to transfer sovereignty of the British territory is 'good value' - despite Sir Keir's counterpart describing it as a 'great victory'.
The government is also being hammered for fiddling figures to claim the total cost of the deal will be £3.4billion - even though it appears to be 10 times that.
Kemi Badenoch said that Donald Trump would be 'laughing' at how Sir Keir had been outmanoeuvred, with the US base on Diego Garcia now secured for the next 99 years.
After armed forces minister Luke Pollard toured broadcast studios defending the terms, the Tory leader said America got a 'great deal at the expense of the UK'.
There have also been signs of nerves among Labour MPs, with a Parliamentary vote expected to ratify the treaty terms.
In a TV address last night, Mauritius PM Navin Ramgoolam hailed the 'great victory', saying: 'This is the culmination of a battle waged by the Mauritian authorities for more than 60 years, marking one of the last chapters in the process of decolonization of Mauritius, which began in 1968.
'It's total recognition of our sovereignty on the Chagos, including Diego Garcia.'
The text of the pact states that it will 'complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius'.
The UK agreed to pay at least £120 million-a-year for 99 years for control of the vital Diego Garcia base, plus hand over £1.125billion for economic development over a 25-year period.
Officials said the deal amounted to an average of £101million a year in 2025/26 prices with an overall cost of £3.4billion a year 'using a net present value methodology'.
However, that relies on using a 'Social Time Preference' mechanism to discount the value of the payments - on top of adjusting for the effects of inflation.
The true cost of the deal looks like being more than £30billion if expressed in real terms.
Mr Pollard argued that the cost was 'comparable' to bases other allies lease in the region.
'So it's £3.4billion over 99 years – that represents good value,' he told Sky News.
The French pay 85million euros a year to rent a base in Djibouti that is 'literally next door to the Chinese naval base that's leased there', he said.
He argued that Diego Garcia is '15 times bigger than that French base' and the UK had secured an 'exclusion zone' around the base to protect UK and US operations.
The Trump administration in Washington has supported the deal, which guarantees the future of the base which is used extensively by the US armed forces.
Asked why the US is not contributing to the cost of leasing back the base, he said the partner country pays much more in operational costs.
'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,' he told Times Radio.
Mrs Badenoch said the US was benefiting at the UK's expense.
'Donald Trump is laughing at that Chagos deal,' the Conservative Party leader told BBC Breakfast.
'He's welcoming it because he's not going to have to pay very much, if anything at all.
'He's got a great deal at the expense of the UK. That's not right. It hasn't been done in our national interest.
'What I want to see is more nurses being paid well but we can't do that because we're taking a lot of terrible decisions under Keir Starmer that are weakening our country.'
The total cash cost over the 99-year term of the deal will be at least £13 billion for the use of the base and the 25-year agreement to hand over money to support projects to promote the 'economic development and welfare of Mauritius'.
The International Court of Justice, in an advisory opinion in 2019, said the Chagos Archipelago should be handed over.
Ministers argued that 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 which is used by US and British forces.
The government's claims for the cost of the deal relies on using a 'Social Time Preference' mechanism to discount the value of the payments - on top of adjusting for the effects of inflation
However, critics have dismissed the legal threat, questioning whether the US or France would have bowed to the edict of a foreign court.
Labour MP Peter Lamb reportedly posted in a Labour WhatsApp group last night: 'Getting real tired of this 'the courts have settled it' line of argument being wheeled out by the PM.
'They interpret current law, MPs make the law. You can't hide behind a judgement and claim it gives you cover from questions over what is right or proper.'
Supporters say the UK will retain full operational control of Diego Garcia, including the electromagnetic spectrum satellite used for communications which counters hostile interference.
A 24-nautical mile buffer zone will be put in place around the island where nothing can be built or placed without UK consent.