Sir Keir Starmer is “on the ropes” following a GB News exclusive on the controversial Chagos Islands deal, a former Labour politician has claimed.
Former Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston told GB News the situation is piling pressure on the Prime Minister, after it was revealed on The Late Show that the US State Department is to “imminently” write to Sir Keir and the Foreign Office as part of a major intervention on the Chagos Island deal.
Speaking to The People’s Channel, Mr Midgley suggested the British Government had failed to take the President’s criticism with sufficient seriousness, instead focusing on earlier supportive comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The UK hasn’t taken that seriously enough,” he said. “What they have been taken seriously enough is Marco Rubio’s post for May 2025, so they keep referring it back.”
He added bluntly: “No10 is definitely spinning right now.”
Speaking to Britain’s News Channel, Mr Preston said: “This is heaping even more pressure on Starmer.
“He’s on the ropes, he’s been on the ropes for nine months and it’s quite remarkable, in some ways.
“Credit to him for hanging in there and taking the blows week in, week out. But this puts a lot more pressure on him.
Former Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston said that Keir Starmer is on the ropes
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GB NEWS
“The Chagos deal: discussions were started under the Conservatives. Labour took over after winning power and completed a deal which many say is a terrible one.
“The Americans were initially fine with it, but Trump now seems to be turning on it. He didn’t seem to fully understand the situation at first, because he asked, ‘Why are they selling the Chagos Islands? Maybe they need the money.’
“He didn’t seem to realise that we’re actually paying Mauritius to take it. From a security perspective, nothing has changed.
“The Tories quite rightly point out that in 1966 we signed a binding agreement with the US that would prohibit handing the islands back to Mauritius.
Robert Midgley from Friends of the British Overseas Territories spoke to GB News after holding meetings with the US State Department | GB NEWS
“So there are two angles here. This is putting more pressure on Starmer.
“The public are curious and furious about the Chagos deal because it doesn’t seem to make sense: the UK controls the land, hands it over to someone else, rightly or wrongly, and also pays them a large sum of money each year. It does frustrate people.
“Trump joining in now, which I think is political posturing, heaps even more pressure on Starmer.
“Trump joining in nonetheless heaps more pressure on Starmer. He’s on the ropes.”
He added: “It’s totally feasible that Trump did not know the details, and not many would expect him to.
“His security services, that huge operation in the US, must have known the details and gone through them with a fine-tooth comb.
“Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands is really important to the US and the UK, so it’s impossible to think they didn’t know.
“What’s changed for Trump is domestic pressure. At home, his popularity and approval ratings are falling.
“They were already low for a US president at this stage of the cycle, about as low as people have ever seen.
“So he’s under a lot of pressure. He also lost some face in Greenland, most people think, regarding the Greenland situation at Davos.”