Nigel Farage issues Chagos Islands warning as ‘turf war’ set to erupt | Politics | News
Nigel Farage has predicted a new twist in the Chagos Islands saga as Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand over sovereignty of the region to Mauritius comes under attack. President Trump has called on the UK Government not to cede sovereignty to the Diego Garcia UK-US base, which has a runway long enough for heavy bombers but is out of reach of Iranian missiles. Britain plans to lease back the base for 99 years, but the proposals have come under cross-party fire and there is opposition among native Chagossians. Mr Farage predicted a new wave of opposition to the plan was about to begin. The Reform UK leader, who has just returned from the Maldives, told Parliament that he expected that state to lay claim to the Chagos Islands. He claimed that Maldivians fear the consequences of a “territorial war” between India and China.
He told MPs: “The Maldives has historical ties with the Chagos Islands, both commercial and archaeological. In fact, all the French did was to name the islands from the Maldivian language. There is no basis, historical, cultural or otherwise, for Mauritius to claim the islands. The Maldives are upset for two reasons. First, there has been great stability in this region for decades and what happens in this situation? According to the agreement, if the agreement goes through, an ongoing turf war between India and China in the region will end.” “It will end, and it has actually already begun.” Mr Farage added: “I would like to inform the government that, in my view, we are just days away from the Maldives taking action at the International Court of Justice to say that it is the Maldives and not Mauritius that has sovereignty over these islands. And I ask you to stop all this.”
Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel fired back at both Labor and Reform, saying: “Labour wants to surrender to Mauritius, Reform wants to surrender to the Maldives. Only the Conservatives will keep Chagos British.”
In a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, Dame Priti applauded the US for preventing the agreement from becoming a reality.
He said: “We have seen international committees and bodies that few have heard of, but we are all paying the price, challenging and questioning our sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, the British Indian Overseas Territory, home to the strategically important US military base at Diego Garcia. “China, Russia and Iran have all celebrated and worked to achieve this devastating outcome.
“But instead of defending our interests and freedoms, the Labor Government has backtracked on handing over British sovereign territory to a foreign government.”
He added: “If it were not for the intervention of the President of the United States and the judicial overturning of this appalling Labor policy by my party in Parliament, this sovereign territory would be in the hands of the Mauritian government.
“The UK and America – my party and the American administration – have worked to delay the passage of this terrible legislation, and I want to thank the White House team for listening to calls from their British Conservative allies to stop this terrible capitulation.”
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