Labour to push ahead with Chagos ‘surrender deal’ despite Andy Burnham’s promise to Donald Trump

Speaking in the House of Commons, the Defence Secretary said: “Having looked at this whole issue with a fresh pair of eyes, I’ve reached the same conclusion as every Prime Minister since Boris Johnson, including this one, which is the capabilities provided by that base makes it extremely unwise and a risk not worth taking to have legal uncertainty.

“That is why efforts to negotiate a treaty continue, and they (the Conservatives) may disagree now.

“If they do, they should explain why Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and (Rishi Sunak) were all trying to achieve the same outcome.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government already agreed to cede control of the British Indian Ocean Territory in exchange for securing the continued operation of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.

The deal was supposed to cost £165million a year in the first three years of a 99-year deal, dropping to £120million annually from year four.

However, critics warn the deal could spiral to an eye-watering £35 billion.

There had been speculation that Labour was willing to put the brakes on signing a new deal after Mr Burnham met with US President Donald Trump in New York.

The Prime Minister appeared to confirm Labour would review the proposed deal during the pair’s first face-to-face meeting.

The US President also branded the accord “terrible” and “ridiculous”.

However, ex-Attorney General Lord Hermer claimed Mr Trump only voiced opposition to Labour’s Chagos deal following the UK’s response to America’s war with Iran.

He told Times Radio: “There was obviously a change in view by the US administration, by President Trump. They were very supportive of it to begin with.

“Then following the decisions that we took not to join them in their Iran endeavour, there was a change from President Trump.

“What I do know is the decisions that were taken from the UK were always about securing the long-term future of the base because of its importance from a national security perspective.”

The UK began negotiations to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after the International Court of Justice backed Mauritius’s claim to the Indian Ocean archipelago in 2019.

However, the Tories and Reform UK remain against giving the Chagos Islands to an ally of China.

The two parties were at loggerheads last week after Kemi Badenoch accused Nigel Farage of wanting to hand the Indian Ocean archipelago over to Mr Trump.

A senior White House official said: “At no point did anyone in the administration construe Nigel’s comments as suggesting that he was giving away the Chagos Islands.

“He was obviously referring to the use of the Diego Garcia military base, which is critical to countering threats from China and Iran.”

They told The Times: “Anyone claiming otherwise is peddling fake news and undermining the Anglo-American relationship, including, apparently, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.”

During his Commons outing today, Mr Streeting also blasted Reform UK for suggesting the UK cannot defend the Falkland Islands.

The Defence Secretary said: “It is simply irresponsible, not to mention inaccurate, to suggest that the UK is incapable of defending the Falkland Islands.

“We are perfectly capable of doing that. We had a very visible demonstration only recently.”

He added: “Maybe if Reform had a defence spokesperson, they might have noticed.”