Starmer pauses Chagos Islands deal after Trump criticism
Passing Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal through parliament has been “paused” after Donald Trump called on the prime minister to scrap it, a minister has said.
Foreign secretary Hamish Falconer said on Wednesday that although the United States had initially expressed support for the deal, the US president’s intervention earlier this month was “very significant”.
Mr Falconer told MPs the government was now “pausing” talks with the US before bringing back to parliament the bill to ratify the deal.
“We have a process going through the parliament regarding the agreement,” he said.
“We will bring this back to parliament at an appropriate time. We are taking a break from talks with our American counterparts.”
Last year Sir Keir reached a controversial agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the UK-US military base in Diego Garcia.
The UK agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million a year over the 99-year agreement to lease back the site; This puts the total cost in cash terms at at least £13bn.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump attacked Starmer in his second U-turn to drum up support for a deal for Britain to hand over sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president described the move as a “big mistake” due to concerns over the joint UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
His withdrawal of support came after it was revealed he had voiced his support for the deal last year, before criticizing it in January and February.
Mr Falconer was answering questions on Wednesday from MPs including Nigel Farage, who visited the independent archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean at the weekend.
The Maldives is ready to file a counterclaim with the International Court of Justice over the Chagos Islands “in just a few days”, the Reform UK leader has claimed.
Mr Farage said: “I would like to inform the Government that 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.”
Mr Farage had boarded a boat carrying food and medicine preparing to make the 24-hour journey to Ile du Coin, 300 miles from the Maldives.
But sources said Telegram The plans failed because UK authorities insisted that only trained crew be on board.
Mr Falconer branded it a “blatant incident caused by ignoring travel advice”, while former defense secretary Ben Wallace lashed out, saying no MP could visit the archipelago without prior permission and accusing him of Trump-style stunts.
