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Powys County Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Powys County Times
Letter: Decision to give up Chagos Islands is self-sabotage
The UK government's decision to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is a disgraceful act of national self-sabotage. It is, frankly, nothing more than woke virtue signalling dressed up as diplomacy. The Chagos Islands were never part of an independent Mauritius, yet this government has chosen to ignore both historical fact and the voices of the Chagossian people, who were once again excluded from any meaningful consultation. Even more insulting, we are paying Mauritius to take this vital strategic territory, and then paying again to rent it back. Labour uses words like 'bought' or 'sold' to describe this arrangement - but what do you call it when you pay someone to take something valuable off you? That is what they've done. This so-called deal could cost British taxpayers up to £30 billion over its lifetime - at a time when families are struggling, taxes are rising, and our armed forces are being stretched to their limits. The government claims this is about 'righting a historic wrong,' yet all they have done is create a new wrong - ignoring the indigenous Chagossians, compromising UK security, and giving ground to a Chinese-aligned state in the Indian Ocean. Let's be clear: this is a strategic asset of immense importance. particularly Diego Garcia, which is critical to both UK and US security. By transferring sovereignty to Mauritius, the UK opens the door to Chinese influence, which has been expanding across the Indo-Pacific. This sets a dangerous precedent for other British Overseas Territories. It sends a message that our sovereignty is negotiable, and our strategic interests expendable. Starmer's government has not made Britain respected - they've made us a laughing stock.
Spectator
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Was there another way to solve the Chagos Islands dispute?
I could not resist rushing to the High Court to witness the eleventh-hour challenge to the deal to give away the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, brought by two valiant Chagossian women. Outside, their supporters chanted 'Chagossians British' and waved their passports. Inside, it was a legal massacre, with the government's lawyers insisting that the Foreign Secretary's power to make treaties is not reviewable by the courts, that David Lammy had 'broad powers of discretion' to make what deals he liked with Mauritius and that there had been no promise to consult with the Chagossians on its terms, which meant no promise had been broken. As the judge reeled off the grounds for overturning the injunction that had paused the deal overnight, it became brutally obvious that by not consulting them on the deal in any meaningful way and saying it didn't have to, Britain was doing a second great wrong to British Chagossians.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK signs £3.4bn deal to cede sovereignty over Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The UK has signed a £3.4bn agreement to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after an 11th-hour legal challenge failed. Keir Starmer told a press conference on Thursday afternoon he had signed the deal and that it was 'one of the most significant contributions that we make to our security relationship with the United States'. Under the agreement, Britain cedes control over the islands to Mauritius but leases the largest one, Diego Garcia, for 99 years to continue operating a joint US-UK military base there. The cost of leasing Diego Garcia, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is £101m a year. Ministers said the total cost of the deal would be £3.4bn, on the basis that the value of the payments would decrease with inflation. Speaking from the UK's military headquarters, Starmer said there was 'no alternative' to this agreement and defended its cost, saying it was 'part and parcel of using Britain's reach to keep us safe at home'. He said it was less than the cost of running one aircraft carrier for a year. Downing Street said the deal was a 'legal necessity' and backed by the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which are part of an intelligence-sharing partnership with the UK. In 2021 a UN court gave an advisory opinion that the UK did not have rightful sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago. Some inside government and the Labour party had privately attacked the agreement by asking why the UK was spending billions on it amid cost pressures. No 10 is said to have been concerned about the backlash to finalising the deal amid widespread consternation over cuts to winter fuel payments and disability benefits. MPs and campaigners have said those cuts contributed to Labour's heavy losses in the local elections in England this month. There have also been fears that the base will become vulnerable to interference from hostile states such as China, which has good relations with Mauritius. In response the government said there was 'robust provisions' to keep adversaries out, including a 24-nautical mile buffer zone where nothing can be built without UK consent. Starmer said that by attacking the deal, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, were 'in that column alongside Russia, China and Iran, rather than the column that has the UK and its allies in it'. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, accused Starmer of having 'slandered the Chagossian community' by lumping opponents of the deal with hostile states. 'He has resorted to baseless and disgusting slurs – whilst he himself hands control of Chagos to a country that is actually cosying up with Russia and China,' she said. The Chagossians do not speak with one voice on the future of the islands. Some have expressed support for the deal to hand sovereignty over them to Mauritius, while others are staunchly against it. Peter Lamb, the Labour MP for Crawley, West Sussex, which is home to about 4,000 Chagossians, criticised the deal in the Commons. He said it did not secure their right to return to their homeland and asked 'what should I tell my Chagossian constituents, when they ask the moral basis upon which the UK is ignoring their right to self-determination while we fight for it in Ukraine for Ukrainians?' John Healey, the defence secretary, said the UK would finance a £40m trust fund for Mauritius to support the Chagossian people. Plans to complete the agreement were almost scuppered by a legal challenge in the early hours of Thursday. The prime minister had been due to attend a virtual event with the Mauritian government when a high court judge granted an injunction brought against the Foreign Office by a British Chagossian at 2.25am on Thursday. Overnight Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, who was born on Diego Garcia and had previously taken legal action against the agreement. But hours later Mr Justice Chamberlain discharged the injunction, ruling that 'the public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced by the grant or continuance of interim relief'. The court was told by Harriet Mathews, the Foreign Office's director general for Africa, the Americas and Overseas Territories, that the delay had 'caused harm to the UK's reputation'. Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London after the injunction was discharged, Pompe said it was 'a very, very sad day … We are British citizens, yet our right doesn't count. We don't want to give our rights to Mauritius, we are not Mauritians.' Starmer said the last-minute legal challenge had been 'a good thing' because it had forced a court to come down conclusively on the government's side. No 10 said last month that Donald Trump had signed off the deal after a meeting with Starmer in the White House in February where the US president said he had 'a feeling it's going to work out very well'. The news of the government's intention to green-light the deal came a day after Starmer announced a U-turn on the winter fuel allowance. He told the Commons on Wednesday that he wanted to 'ensure that as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments'. The Guardian revealed earlier this month that Downing Street was rethinking the policy. Before February, there had been concerns in government that Trump would block the Chagos Islands agreement after a backlash from some senior US Republicans. Senior figures in the Trump administration including Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, had criticised the proposals last year because of Mauritius's relationship with China. Farage, the Reform UK leader, repeatedly claimed that Trump would reject the proposal once he turned his attention to it, but this did not materialise.
The Hindu
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
U.K.'s Chagos Islands deal risks entrenching exile of some islanders: rights group
Human Rights Watch said on Friday the U.K. government's deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius could "entrench" the exile of Chagossians from the archipelago's biggest island. While the agreement "may result in some Chagossians returning to some islands... it also appears to entrench their exile from Diego Garcia, the largest island," said Clive Baldwin of the New York-based rights group. The group described the forcible displacement of the "entire Chagossian indigenous people, mostly to Mauritius, for a U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia" as an "ongoing colonial crime against humanity". British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced an agreement to give the remote Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius in exchange for control of a crucial U.S.-U.K. military base on Diego Garcia island. The deal, first touted in autumn last year, will see Britain pay its former colony £101 million ($136 million) annually for 99 years to lease the facility, Mr. Starmer said. As part of the agreement, Mauritius will be able to resettle Chagossian islanders, expelled from the archipelago by Britain in the 1960s, to all of its over 50 islands, apart from Diego Garcia. Under the deal, the British government will set up a £40-million ($54 million) trust fund for the 10,000-strong Chagossian diaspora. The agreement was announced with a slight delay after a last-minute injunction was granted to Chagos Islands-born British national Bertrice Pompe. In court documents Pompe laid out concerns that under the deal Mauritius would be responsible for resettling the islands. She said Chagossians had suffered decades of "discrimination" at the hands of Mauritius, "including in relation to distribution of financial support intended for Chagossians", according to the court documents. Pompe said she had been living in exile since being "forcibly removed from the Chagos Islands by the British authorities between 1967 and 1973". Of the around 2,000 Chagos inhabitants who were expelled by the UK, many ended up in destitution in Mauritius, she said. Britain retained control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s — evicting thousands of Chagos islanders to allow the U.S. to build the strategic military base. The islanders have since then mounted several legal claims for compensation in British courts, while Mauritius brought its claims over the islands to international courts.
Dubai Eye
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Dubai Eye
UK signs Chagos deal with Mauritius to seal future of US-UK air base
Britain signed a deal on Thursday to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after a London judge overturned a last-minute injunction and cleared the way for an agreement the government says is vital to protect the nation's security. The multibillion-dollar deal will allow Britain to retain control of the strategically important US-UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease. The signing went ahead after a carefully choreographed ceremony was postponed when lawyers representing a British national born in the Chagos Islands were granted an interim injunction at the High Court in the early hours of Thursday. Judge Martin Chamberlain then lifted that injunction following a hearing, saying Britain's interests would be "substantially prejudiced" if the injunction were to continue. The government, which has been criticised by opposition parties for pursuing a deal they say is overly costly and would play into the hands of China, has long said the agreement is essential to secure the future of Diego Garcia. The signing ends months of wrangling over the deal, the details of which were first announced in October, after the then-Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth was replaced by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who raised concerns about it. It was further delayed after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January, with London wanting to give the new administration time to examine the details of the plan. In February, Trump indicated his backing for the deal. The injunction was the latest legal challenge to the deal in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora, many of whom ended up in Britain after being forcibly removed from the archipelago more than 50 years ago. It was granted following action by Bertrice Pompe, a British national who was born in Diego Garcia and has criticised the deal for excluding Chagossians. James Eadie, the government's lawyer, said the delay was damaging to British interests and "there is jeopardy to our international relations ... (including with) our most important security and intelligence partner, the US." It is one less headache for Starmer, who is under fire from his own governing Labour Party for implementing welfare cuts to try to better balance Britain's books. But Starmer's political opponents were again critical of the accord, arguing it was both costly and by ceding sovereignty, China could further deepen its ties with Mauritius, benefiting Beijing's influence in the Indian Ocean. "Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X. The financial component of the deal includes 3 billion pounds to be paid by Britain to Mauritius over the 99-year term of the agreement, with an option for a 50-year extension and Britain maintaining the right of first refusal thereafter. The base's capabilities are extensive and strategically crucial. Recent operations launched from Diego Garcia include bombing strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024-2025, humanitarian aid deployments to Gaza and, further back, attacks on Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan in 2001.
