Peers inflict new blow to Starmer on government’s Chagos handover deal
Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been dealt a humiliating blow in the House of Lords after colleagues backed demands for renegotiation.
In a vote that stunned the government, his peers backed a request to renegotiate the terms of the deal to ensure payments were halted if the military base in Diego Garcia could no longer be used.
The amendment, led by former military commanders, was supported by 132 votes to 124 in the House of Lords, representing the prime minister’s fourth defeat in the upper house over the controversial deal.
The amendment stated that the government must make arrangements for payment terms “in the event that environmental or other problems make military use of the Base permanently impossible.”
The UK agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million a year over the 99-year agreement to lease back the ground; This puts the total cost in cash terms at at least £13bn.
But while the government estimates the bill will be lower at around £101 million a year, critics argue it will be much higher.
The bill needed to implement the deal has already been approved by MPs but faces a tedious process in the House of Lords.
Independent crossbencher Lord Houghton of Richmond, who served as chief of the defense staff from 2013-16, said: “The bill does not currently contain any provision for the circumstances in which the obligation to pay an annual fee for the use of the Diego Garcia base is reviewed if the base becomes unusable for military purposes.”
In a veiled reference to US president Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela, Lord Houghton said: “Many in the room may think my concerns stem from the realm of fantasy or nightmare, but do not the last 72 hours raise a serious concern about our ability to predict with any accuracy geopolitics over the next two years, let alone the next 100 years?
“This deal needs to be much more responsive to what the future may bring.”
Lord Callayan, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary, said: “It is unconscionable that British taxpayers should be forced to continue to fund the Mauritian government under the terms of the agreement where the military base to which the treaty relates and which it secures has therefore become unusable.”
I answer. Darlington Foreign Minister Baroness Chapman said that the agreement includes a mechanism to address developments regarding the base and that the agreement is also within the scope of international law.
A leading Labor figure added: “We are taking the necessary steps to prevent the base from becoming unusable and, as difficult as it is for us to imagine hypothetical situations today, there are processes established by the agreement to resolve them.”
The government was put in a worse position because the Lords supported a Liberal Democrat measure requiring a referendum among the Chagossian community on whether the transfer agreement adequately guaranteed rights to resettlement, consultation and participation in decision-making processes, and whether the government responded to the outcome.
Up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly removed from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s; many later settled in Britain and some continued to seek the right to return.
The upper house also backed a Tory demand for a detailed cost of payments to be made to Mauritius under the deal, including a full methodology used to calculate the total.
Another Liberal Democrat measure was also backed that would provide parliamentary oversight over UK Government spending linked to the deal and also allow MPs to halt payments if Mauritius is judged to be in breach of the terms of the deal.
The World Court called on Britain to return the islands to Mauritius in 2019, and an agreement was reached in May after years of negotiations.
The changes are likely to be reversed by MPs when they are sent back to the House of Commons, but the move will delay formal agreement of the deal.
But Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said: “Labour has once again suffered a humiliating defeat over the disgraceful anti-British Chagos Surrender Bill. “At every stage of this process, the Government has sought to silence and ignore the Chagossian people and avoid scrutiny over the outrageous handover of £35bn of British land and taxpayers’ money.
“Keir Starmer is weak and incapable of defending Britain at home and abroad. Britain’s defense and security are at risk because of this appalling law. Only the Conservatives will defend Britain on the international stage.”
The Chagossians pushed for the treaty to be canceled and given sovereignty over the islands.
A spokesman for the Chagossians said: “We will continue to secure the support of the Lords and press the government for compromise. The voice of the Chagossians must be heard and world security and the Chagos environment must be protected.”
