Chagos deal cost is ‘going rate for best defensive real estate', says ex-FO boss
Hitting out at critics who argued the UK should ignore a legal ruling to hand over the archipelago to Mauritius, Lord McDonald of Salford argued this was what 'the powerful and unprincipled do', such as Russia.
The independent crossbencher, a former ambassador who headed the Foreign Office from 2015 to 2020, spoke in support of the agreement in the face of strong objections at Westminster, with opponents branding it a 'surrender' and 'gross folly' funded by the public.
The deal signed last month after long-running negotiations, started under the previous Tory administration, returns sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but will see Britain lease back the strategically important military base on Diego Garcia.
It follows a 2019 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which said the UK should cede control.
As well as establishing a £40 million fund for Chagossians expelled from the islands, the UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million annually during the duration of the 99-year agreement, a total cost in cash terms of at least £13 billion.
The Government, however, estimates the bill will be lower at around £101 million a year, while critics argue it will be much higher.
The deal could also be extended in the future for an extra 40 years, provided agreement is reached.
In a recent report, the House of Lords International Agreements Committee (HLIAC) said although 'not perfect', the treaty must be ratified to avoid legal challenges that could threaten UK control of the military base.
Its members warned Mauritius was 'likely' to resume its campaign to secure a binding judgment on sovereignty against Britain unless the agreement was approved and concluded the Government 'cannot ignore' the risk of an 'adverse ruling' putting Britain's right to run the joint UK-US site in jeopardy.
Speaking at Westminster as peers debated the controversial accord, Lord McDonald said: 'The most damaging blow to any country's international reputation is a justified charge of hypocrisy.
'The United Kingdom stands for the rule of law in all circumstances. We lose credibility when we seek exceptions to this principle for ourselves.'
He added: 'Opponents dislike the expense of the deal.
'Well, we're paying the going rate as a tenant for a base in the wider Indian Ocean, somewhat more than the French in Djibouti, but we're getting more for more.
'Diego Garcia is the best defensive real estate in the whole Indian Ocean.
'Even though £101 million per year is a lot, it's a lot less than the Americans pay to run the base.
'It's a joint base, and we're paying our way in the joint effort.'
Lord McDonald also disputed the agreement would bolster China's presence in the Indian Ocean, arguing that 'our partner in Delhi looms much larger in Mauritian calculations than our challenger in Beijing'.
He went on: 'Confronted by a charge of double standards, some opponents of this agreement shrug their shoulders. They think they can get away with it, tough it out. But that is what the powerful and unprincipled do. That is what Russia does.'
The peer added: 'It gives the UK and our American allies a secure presence in the archipelago for the next 140 years.
'It enhances our security and restores our reputation as a country respecting international law, even when inconvenient and costly.'
But Tory shadow foreign minister Lord Callanan said: 'This agreement amounts to a retreat, a surrender of sovereign territory that serves as a linchpin of our defence architecture at a time when authoritarian threats are rising and alliances matter more than ever.
'Handing control to a government who align themselves ever more closely with Beijing – a regime that actively undermines international norms and our national interests – is not only unwise, it is positively dangerous.
'To compound the error, the British taxpayer is being made to foot the bill.'
He added: 'This whole affair has been a gross folly. There is no strategic gain here, no credible guarantee for the future of Diego Garcia and no reassurance for our allies.
'Instead, we send a message to adversaries and allies alike that British sovereignty is indeed negotiable. It is capitulation and we must reject it.'
Pointing out the Tories in office had opened negotiations to cede sovereignty, Liberal Democrat Lord Purvis of Tweed said: 'The treaty is a consequence of now completing the previous Conservative government's policy.'
Foreign minister Lord Collins of Highbury said the agreement secured the future of the military base and had the support of key allies.
He told the chamber: 'This deal will protect the safety and security of the British people for generations, making sure that the United Kingdom retains the unique, important capabilities we need to deal with a range of threats in the months and years ahead.'
Peers rejected by 205 votes to 185, majority 20, a Tory attempt to get the House to oppose the treaty's ratification, which would have forced the Government to make a statement on why the deal should still be approved.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
10 minutes ago
- The Independent
Manchester United's bold new stadium plans already delayed by dispute with freight train company
Manchester United 's bold plans to build a new 100,000-seater stadium beside replace Old Trafford have already hit a major hindrance. Sir Jim Ratcliffe unveiled drawings earlier this year for a new venue to replace the tired existing ground, which has been poorly maintained under the Glazer family's ownership. The plans included major new housing, leisure and retail space around the ground to transform the area into an attractive destination that offers visitors more than just football. United has proposed building the £2bn stadium themselves. The futuristic design – by celebrated architest Sir Norman Foster 's firm Foster + Partners – is inspired by the Red Devils Trident, and is dominated by three huge spindles or masts in a trident formation, giving the project the impression of something of a circus tent. But the club are looking for both local government and Trafford Council to support the wider scheme. However, progress has already halted as the club negotiates with local landowner Freightliner, which owns a train terminal close to Old Trafford. United value the land at £40-50m but Freightliner has demanded £400m and talks are at an impasse, according to the Guardian. United remain confident the ambitious timescale of completing the project within five to six years can be met, with sights set on hosting the Women's World Cup final in 2035 when the tournament is hosted on the British Isles. A taskforce convened by Ratcliffe, chaired by Lord Sebastian Coe, estimated the regeneration project could bring an extra £7.3bn to the British economy and create 92,000 jobs. Chief executive Omar Berrada said at the time: 'Our long-term objective as a club is to have the world's best football team playing in the world's best stadium', with Old Trafford - which has been United's home since 1909 - deemed to have 'fallen behind', in Ratcliffe's words. "I think we may well finish up with the most iconic football stadium in the world," the billionaire added. Two of the three masts will reach 150m in height, with the tallest - at the apex of the trident - 200m, significantly taller than the tallest building in Manchester, the 169m Beetham Tower, and towering over Wembley's 135m mast. The plan for the masts is for them to be visible for up to 37.4km - so residents of parts of Cheshire, the Peak District, and even the outskirts of Liverpool will be able to see at least some of the stadium. Alongside the stadium will be a huge plaza, "twice the size of Trafalgar Square" according to the architects, with the material connecting the masts extending to cover this outside space. Foster has said the stadium will take five years to build, and will be a 'prefabrication' built elsewhere and transported down the Manchester Ship Canal in 160 component pieces. Ratcliffe has not stated when building work to begin, but said: 'It depends how quickly the government get going with their regeneration. I think they want to get going quite quickly. I assume that will go well. The thing that allows us to do that is the Manchester Ship Canal, that halves the time.' The government has already given its backing to the project.
Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Vandalising Wes Streeting's office is not protest, it is violent criminal intimidation
It is a sight that is becoming more common as social justice warriors abandon old-fashioned ideas of legal protest: a prominent MP turns up for work at his constituency office only to find the windows smashed and offensive graffiti painted across the front of the building. The clean-up costs will be met by the tax-payer but the fear and intimidation that the attack was intended to generate will be felt most keenly by vulnerable staff members working in Wes Streeting's Ilford North headquarters, and even by the health secretary's constituents. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Trans Bash Back, a 'trans-led direct action project'. Sharing an image of the front of the office shortly after it had been vandalised, they wrote on social media: 'Don't want action? Don't kill kids.' That sinister threat was even echoed by a Scottish Green candidate standing at next year's Holyrood elections. Iris Duane took to Twitter in the aftermath of the attack to write: 'If you don't want 'child killer' sprayed onto your office, have you considered not killing children?' The accusation of infanticide comes from Streeting's acceptance of the recommendations of the extensive and authoritative Cass review of health care for adolescents questioning their gender identity, which led to a ban on new patients under 18 being prescribed puberty blockers. It's natural that people who feel strongly about this issue or the other two topics in the holy trinity of social justice causes – Palestine and climate change – should want to vent their fury at politicians who disagree with them. But the modern era has spawned a new type of activist who sees flagrant breaches of the law, including criminal damage, as an entirely legitimate form of protest. This seems to be based on a belief that their cause is special, even uniquely virtuous, and that because the injustice felt by the protesters when they don't get their own way is felt so intensely, the range of 'remedies' open to them is broadened beyond the limits of the law. Even when protesters are prosecuted and jailed, there is outrage from these same groups who seem to believe that violence, provided it is perpetrated for the 'right' cause, must be exempt from all consequences. Even our national broadcaster is partly culpable for encouraging, by its inaction, such dangerous exceptionalism. The attack on Streeting's office is but the latest incident by activists taking out their frustrations and sense of entitlement on the constituency bases of MPs who refuse to vote the way they demand. In November 2023, pro-Palestinian activists daubed Labour MP Jo Stevens's Cardiff office with red paint after she abstained on a parliamentary vote on Gaza. A year earlier former Tory MP Peter Bone's constituency office in Wellingborough was similarly vandalised, apparently in protest at recent sleaze allegations against his party. And earlier this year, the Shrewsbury MP Julia Buckley, was forced to abandon her constituency office after it was targeted three times in as many weeks. These are all egregious attacks on our democratic process and democratic norms. And each of them was adequately covered on the BBC News website. But as of today, no word on the latest attack on Streeting's office has been reported by the BBC. Which is deeply odd, since the corporation even has a special designated section of its vast website devoted to trans issues, replete with preferred pronouns and tales of 'stunning and brave' gender transitions. And yet, when the darker side of trans activism is revealed in all its shoddy and unpleasant details, when public sector employees live in fear that the violence perpetrated on buildings will be targeted at them next, the BBC suddenly has nothing to say, and will not even report the facts. In an era where two MPs in the last decade have been murdered by violent extremists, the need to protect our elected representatives – and their staff – from all forms of violence and intimidation has never been more urgent. But such protection is not nearly enough. The media must be made to understand that for all the fears of a growth in the threat of the political 'far Right', fascism comes from both sides of the political spectrum, and so does the accompanying violence. Forcing others, by violence or intimidation, to parrot your own political opinions is a fundamental aspect of fascism. Those who cross the line separating legal from illegal protest demean the democratic process because they have demonstrated that they themselves believe it no longer has any value for them. Only by exposing every incident of vandalism, wanton damage, threatening behaviour or literal violence, whatever the motives of the perpetrators, can the foundations of civilisation be prevented from crumbling.
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Reeves acknowledges voter disappointment amid fresh call for wealth tax
Chancellor Rachel Reeves says that Labour must deliver change to earn victory in the next election, acknowledging that some voters are disappointed with the party's progress. She said she is also 'impatient for change' but stressed that ministers cannot implement everything at once, highlighting her responsibility for financial prudence. These remarks coincide with growing public concern over Sir Keir Starmer 's government, whose approval rating recently reached an all-time low. Ms Reeves defended the government's tax policy, saying it has found the right balance despite the challenge of addressing public finance deficits. The discussion follows former Labour shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds' call for a wealth tax, as recent polling indicates a significant perception of chaos within Sir Keir's administration.
