BREAKING: Starmer Pauses Chagos Bill
Keir Starmer has paused his Chagos bill, which would surrender the islands to Mauritius and pay for the privilege, a Minister has confirmed, following Donald Trump’s renewed attack on the agreement last week. The Telegraph has more.
The Government said on Wednesday afternoon that it would delay a process to ratify the deal in the wake of two interventions from Donald Trump.
The US President repeated his call on Sir Keir to scrap the arrangement last week, demanding he must “not give away” Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean.
Sir Keir signed a deal last year to enter into a 99-year lease with Mauritius and legislation was set to return to the Commons as soon as the Parliamentary schedule allowed.
The Chagos bill would implement the deal in UK law and must be passed before the deal is ratified with Mauritius.
Ministers had originally intended the deal to be ratified by the end of 2025, but the process has been repeatedly delayed amid opposition from Trump.
Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer told MPs on Wednesday that “we are now discussing those concerns with the United States directly”.
Falconer said “there clearly has been a statement from the President of the United States more recently, which is very significant”.
The Chagos bill has already been beset with delays, after Tories in the Lords warned the agreement would violate a treaty between the UK and US dating from 1966.
That agreement had asserted Britain’s sovereignty over the islands and is meant to ensure they remain available to both sides for defence purposes.
Ministers said in December that the two nations were engaging in talks about updating this treaty in light of the new Chagos deal, but the talks have not been completed.
The UK had been hopeful that the US was back onside after a spokesman for the state department said Washington “supports the decision” to hand over the islands to Mauritius.
But last week, Trump said: “Prime Minister Starmer should not lose control, for any reason, of Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, 100-year lease.”
Asked during a press briefing whether Trump’s Truth Social message was the administration’s position, Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, said: “The post should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration. It’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Dare we hope this will be the end of it?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Maldives will launch a rival legal claim for sovereignty of the Chagos Islands within days, according to Nigel Farage.
Stop Press 2: A Foreign Office spokesman has rejected Falconer’s characterisation of the situation as a “pause”, while a source told the Telegraph he had “misspoken”:
There is no pause. We have never set a deadline. Timings will be announced in the usual way. We are continuing discussions with the US and we have been clear we will not proceed without their support.
So, not a “pause” just a, er, delay.
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Two Tier Kier is now okey cokey Kier!
Great stuff! So far the score is…
Chagossian First Minister Misley Mandarin – 1
Chairman Mao Starmer – 0
Greedy Grifter Mauritius – 0
Public commenter on Guido said:
“Mandarin deals direct with Orange Man. Tells Starmer to pith off.”
And hopefully the Maldivian grifters zero
Absolutely! Whoever next? Lula the Marxist Gnome in Brazil?
The original plan: Starmer hates colonialism so he decides to give away a colony to a new colonial power – Mauritius. He will fight colonialism by paying the new colonial power to take a colony from Britain. Somehow this transfer to a new colonial power is a huge victory for anti colonialism.
Nobody could understand the point except senior human rights lawyers, who recognised the formation of a gravy train. So they thought the idea was brilliant.
Now we have a new potential colonial power – The Maldives. And don’t forget China which has been lurking offstage throughout.
If only we could turn the clock back to just before Starmer and his merry men set to work.
Back to 1990 would be far more ideal.
I favour 1948
1946
…and then once Chagos has been officially de-colonised it opens the path to surrender Gibraltar to Spain. Perhaps part of the cost of rejoining the EU?
Mr Mandarin and the rest of the advance party of re-settlers with their tents seem to have caused a stir and a bit of a worry for the military base on Diego Garcia. A few people with very little tech on an island some way off from DG. How will the military react when Mauritius decides the outer islands are ideal for their comms links to (say) China – or decides to lease the other islands to other settlers?
The Maldives are far closer to BIOT (451 mi) than Mauritius (1,329 mi). So are the Seychelles (1,172 mi), Sri Lanka (1,064 mi) and India (1,114 mi).
Why Mauritius and even if we want to give The Chagos Islands away, why pay the recipient too?
While I welcome the process being stopped, can I ask about the contract Starmer signed at the beginning, with no Parliamentary mandate.? Is this now null and void, or are there costs and fees to be paid for cancelling it.? How much are we on the hook for.?
Starmer had no right to sign any new treaty when the UK is still bound by the 1966 treaty between the UK & US.
No one has the right to just give away chunks of British Territory without the consent of Parliament or People. He cannot give away the Chagos, or Gibraltar, or the Falklands, or Wales, or Northern Ireland, without the consent of Parliament and People.
Not even Scotland?
Is Starmer just naive or is there something more sinister driving him? He wishes to cede control to Mauritius who, in turn are being controlled by China. He negotiates a 99 year lease with a country controlled by China. China signed a deal with the UK in 1997 which guaranteed a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong for 50 years – up to 2047. China reneged on that deal after only 25 years. Can anyone believe that China would honour a treaty that would stifle their ambitions for 99 years? It is often said that China plays a long game – but not that long. We are being governed by simpletons – or, perhaps, international socialists. Birds of a feather and all that….
What a humiliating shitshow.
FFS.
President Trump: Jump”
Two-tier Keir: ” How high”?
Well done to Misley Mandarin, Adam Holloway et all for returning to Chagos.
I guess even the Starmer-Fuhrer has realised that the sight of Misley Mandarin and his fellow Chagossians being physically dragged off THEIR homeland at the command of a “Human Rights Lawyer” won’t be good PR.
I expect he is now trying to work out how he can justify bunging Mauritius £billions for nothing in return which will be borrowed and added to our existing debt pile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuE6_XtAZeY
The Jonathon Powell cover up warrantsndeeper investigation.