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BBC News
11-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Tories accuse PM of funding tax cuts for Mauritians with Chagos deal
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the UK's £3.4bn deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of a UK-US military base on Diego prime minister's questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called it a "terrible" deal and asked "why on earth" British taxpayers should be paying for tax cuts in Mauritius. Last week, Mauritian prime minister Navin Ramgoolam said the money from the Chagos deal would be used for debt repayments, as part of a Budget package that will see 80% of workers exempted from income prime minister said the UK risked jeopardising the "vital intelligence and strategic capability" on Diego Garcia without a deal. "Legal uncertainty would compromise it in very short order," he told MPs, adding "no responsible prime minister would let that happen".He said: "We have secured the base for the long term and that has been welcomed by our allies - by the US, by Nato, by Australia, New Zealand, India."It's been opposed by our adversaries - Russia, China and Iran. And in the second column we add Reform, following Putin, and the Tories following Reform."But Badenoch insisted the deal had "nothing to do with national security", adding that she had seen the security briefings when she was in government and it was "bad deal before and it's still a bad deal".Negotiations to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius began under the previous Conservative the terms of the deal agreed by Labour, the UK will lease use of the Diago Garcia base for a period of 99 UK will pay £165m in each of the first three years. From years four to 13, it will pay £120m a year. After that, payments will be indexed to Keir says this will average out at a cost of £101m a year, although this figure is disputed by the Conservatives, who say it will be much his Budget, Navin Ramgoolam announced plans to reduce Mauritius's public sector debt to 60% of GDP in the long term."These projections are inclusive of the revenue from Chagos, which will be used for debt repayment for the first three years," he said in a speech to the country's also announced that 80% of workers will not pay income tax but higher earners will pay comes as a panel of experts urged the UK to renegotiate the Chagos deal as it "fails to guarantee" the rights of the Chagossian panel, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said it was "gravely concerned about the lack of meaningful participation of Chagossians in the processes that have led to the agreement".Philippe Sands KC, who represented Mauritius in its long-running legal battle with the UK over the Chagos islands, insisted this was not the case. "I want to really knock on the head this idea that all of the Chagossians were not involved in the various processes. That is simply not true," he told a House of Lords committee."It is true, however, that the Chagossian community is divided and I respect that division."The "quid pro quo" for the military base remaining on Diego Garcia was that Chagossians would be allowed to settle on the outer islands of the archipelago, he told said he understood the "bitterness and the hurt" of the Chagossian community in the UK, who were "forcibly deported from Diego Garcia and who wish to return and will not be able to return".But he said "most in Mauritius and Seychelles have made very they wish this deal to go ahead" - and they had been "deeply involved in consulting with successive prime ministers of Mauritius".He told peers the deal "will enhance Britain's position in the world" as a country that respects "the rule of law".It follows a 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice saying the islands should be handed over to Sands, who revealed that he had become a Mauritian citizen in 2020, so he could take part in a hearing in person during the Covid pandemic, said he had not been working "pro bono" for the country's government but could not say how much he had been also paid tribute to Liz Truss, who he said had kicked off negotiations during her brief tenure in Number is disputed by Truss, who has blamed Boris Johnson for starting the process when he was PM.
South China Morning Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
UK's Chagos deal puts spotlight on strategic contest in the Indian Ocean
Decades of dispute over the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, rooted in colonial history and international legal challenges, have been addressed after the United Kingdom agreed to transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius. Under the May 22 deal , the UK retains a 99-year lease on the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. Under British colonial rule, the island chain was separated from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius was granted independence. Around 2,000 Chagos residents were forcibly removed to make way for the building of the military base on Diego Garcia. In 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued its 'advisory opinion' that the continued UK administration of the Chagos Archipelago was unlawful and should end 'as rapidly as possible'. The UN General Assembly subsequently passed a resolution affirming Mauritius' sovereignty over the archipelago. The UK government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the deal as necessary to comply with international law and maintain strategic security interests. The deal includes a 24-mile buffer zone around Diego Garcia where nothing can be built without UK consent. It also prohibits foreign military and civilian forces from the Chagos Archipelago, with the UK retaining the power to veto any access. Mauritius hailed the agreement as a significant victory in its long-standing campaign to regain the Chagos Archipelago. Under the terms, the UK will pay Mauritius £101 million (US$137 million) annually to lease the Diego Garcia base for at least 99 years and establish a £40 million trust fund for the benefit of the Chagos community.
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
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.
