Kemi Badenoch claimed Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius amounted to an “immoral surrender”. The Tory leader said during Prime Minister’s Questions that “when Labour negotiates, our country loses” and the deal with Mauritius would see money handed over which “belongs to our children and their children”. “This is an immoral surrender so north London lawyers can boast at their dinner parties,” she said.
But Sir Keir defended the proposed deal and said it had been designed to secure the long term future of a US-UK air base on Diego Garcia. He said that “without legal certainty the base cannot operate in practical terms as it should, that is bad for our national security and it is a gift to our adversaries”. The Prime Minister also claimed Mrs Badenoch had not asked for a briefing from the Government on the terms of the deal. He promised he would “set out the details when they are finalised”.
It emerged yesterday that the true cost of the deal to give the islands away could be far higher than previously thought because Britain has agreed to link payments to Mauritius with inflation. Sir Keir’s deal includes a plan for the UK to sign away the islands, but lease back Diego Garcia at a reported cost of £90 million each year for 99 years, for a total of £8.9 billion. The Government has refused to confirm the cost of the deal, although it is understood Mauritius will be given much of the money up front.
You can join the conversation in the comments section. Thank you for joining me for today’s PMQs live blog. The Government has been advised that not securing a deal for the Chagos Islands would put the operation of the Diego Garcia base at risk and directly impact the UK’s national security, No 10 has said. “The legal advice, security advice, is very clear that the operation of this base will be at risk if there is not a deal which would directly impact our national security, US national security, and indeed the operation of a base that is important to regional security,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
The spokesman did not say what the risk was or when or where the advice had come from. The Mauritian prime minister was wrong to suggest that the cost of the Chagos Islands deal to the UK had doubled, Downing Street has said. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mauritian prime minister Navin Ramgoolam’s comments were “factually inaccurate” and there had been “no change” to the cost of the deal as a result of renegotiations.
“There was some reporting on this yesterday in relation to the Mauritian prime minister. He has got those figures, or at least the way he was characterising it, wrong. “His summary of the deal was clearly aimed at a domestic political audience, but it was factually inaccurate. There has been no change to the cost of the deal or the terms of the lease.”. Labour is hoping the US will veto the Chagos Islands deal and give the Government a “get out of jail free card”, Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell has claimed.
He told MPs during an urgent question in the Commons: “I was the deputy foreign secretary throughout much of these negotiations, and I am in a position to tell the House that neither [former foreign secretary James Cleverly] nor Lord [David] Cameron, in the other place as foreign secretary, would ever have done the deal that the Government are now intent upon. “And can I say that I think [Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty] must be praying every night for a get out of jail free card, that when the American administration do come to look at this deal, they will veto it and get the Government off the hook.”.
Mr Doughty replied: “I’ve set out very clearly the reasons for doing this deal. It’s the right deal for our national security and that of our allies. [Mr Mitchell] knows that, because his government started the process and we are absolutely engaged in constructive discussions with our US counterparts. “It was absolutely right that they had the chance to consider this deal and we will allay any concerns that have been raised, and have been raised in this House before, in terms of the security provisions that are there, they are being provided the full detail of this agreement.”.
Dame Priti Patel said the Chagos Islands deal was “disastrous” and labelled it as “one of the worst foreign policy failures in modern British history”. The shadow foreign secretary said: “Labour are surrendering an absolutely critical strategic defence asset which we operate together with our closest security partner and now we are told we have to pay billions for the privilege of doing so.
“When Labour negotiates, Britain loses and loses big time.”. Dame Priti claimed MPs had been “kept in the dark” about the details of the deal. Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, said that the negotiations with Mauritius had been started and progressed when the Tories were in power. He confirmed that the payments to Mauritius will be linked to inflation and said that had been a feature of the deal when the Tories were negotiating it.
