Sir Keir Starmer has suffered a new blow in his bid to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The Prime Minister was defied by peers over the agreement that will see the archipelago transferred to Mauritius in a deal experts warn could cost taxpayers £35 billion.
As part of the agreement, the UK will rent back Diego Garcia, the island that is home to a British and American military base.
This part of the agreement is expected to cost more than £30 billion in cash terms over the next 99 years.
On Monday, peers voted narrowly in favour of renegotiating the treaty to ensure that Britain would stop making payments if “use of the base for military purposes became impossible.”
The proposal, which is likely to be reversed by Labour MPs, would mean reopening talks with the Mauritius government so the UK would not have to pay to rent back the base if “environmental or other issues” render it unusable.
While Sir Keir’s MPs are likely to defy the ruling of peers, the vote will delay the deal’s formal agreement.
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