Watch the moment a British Chagossian raged against Sir Keir Starmer, blasting the Prime Minister for “giving up her homeland”.
The US State Department is to write “imminently” to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Office as part of a major intervention on Labour’s Chagos Island deal, GB News understands.
On Friday night, Robert Midgley from Friends of the British Overseas Territories told The Late Show Live an official communication would soon hit the desk of the Prime Minister outlining an official change in the US position.
The archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which is home to a UK-US military base on the largest island of Diego Garcia, will be handed over to Mauritius under Sir Keir’s agreement.
Responding to the news, Vanessa Calou admitted it was “very sad to realise that we need to go to the US to make them aware what our own Prime Minister is doing”.
She continued: “We are British citizens and the Government is supposed to listen to us and everything happening about our homeland.
“He’s not listening, and we need to plead all the over the country to be able to save our own British homeland. That is a disaster. I don’t understand that.
Ms Calou added she was worried her homeland would be “surrendered” to China “in a way that gives it to Maritius”, a close ally to Beijing.
‘It’s time for him to go,’ Vanessa Calou declared
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GB NEWS/PA
Under the deal, the UK will lease back the military base on the island of Diego Garcia, which is jointly used with the US, for at least 99 years, handing payments over to Mauritius.
“So it looks like Keir Starmer is giving a gift to China via Mauritius and is paying Mauritius at the same time to be able to to accept those islands. But Chagos never belonged to Mauritius,” she fumed.
The Labour leader has attracted a slew of criticism for refusing to allow Chagossians’ to have their say through a referendum, for instance.
He has also been accused of double-standards after railing against Donald Trump for his attempt to annex Greenland without respecting the Danes’ right to self-determination.
The deal would see the Britain lease back the UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia | GETTY
“Sir Keir Starmer needs to start listening to Chagossians,” Ms Calou demanded. “This is a human right that we have.
“Our self-determination need to be respected. We will continue to put pressure on our Government.
“Keir Starmer is a traitor. As you know, all the British people, they never voted for this Government to give away sovereignty of our land.
“This is really, really bad. This Government… it’s time to go. It’s time to put someone else who can do the job and not surrender our homeland.
“I want British people to wake up and to stand up for their rights and to stand up for their homeland.”
The deal was thrown back into the limelight last week when Mr Trump openly declared the agreement to be “an act of great stupidity” and said the UK was handing the archipelago over “for no reason whatsoever”.
The President said: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ Nato ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so for no reason whatsoever.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.”