Starmer’s ‘great friend’ shared £8MILLION pot of earnings for work on Chagos ‘surrender’ deal

A close friend of Sir Keir Starmer has forked over £8 million for his work negotiating a “surrender” agreement that would see the Chagos Islands cede territory to Mauritius, the Daily Mail has revealed.

Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as the ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, pocketed his share of this amount while serving as Mauritius’ general legal counsel between 2010 and 2024.

During this time he also secured the controversial agreement that would see Britain return sovereignty to the strategically important archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, and lease the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years at an average annual cost of £101 million.

Prominent international human rights lawyer Prof., who is also close to Attorney General Lord Hermer. Sands led a number of legal teams tasked almost exclusively with fighting for the island to be ceded to Mauritius.

According to official documents, they were allocated at least £8,300,000 from the Mauritius state budget.

Prof. While the exact figure Sands took home is unknown, his role as general counsel will see him take the biggest cut, according to one international lawyer, who said a large bonus could also be paid upon completion of the deal.

When asked how much salary he was paid, Prof. Sands told the House of Lords Committee he ‘didn’t know’ but admitted he ‘charged like me on almost all my cases’. It was not done for charity.

Prof., who was controversially photographed raising the Mauritius flag on the Chagos islands in 2022. Sands joked about ‘totally humiliating Britain’ during a speech at Cambridge University in 2023.

Prof., who was controversially photographed raising the Mauritius flag on the Chagos islands in 2022. Sands joked about ‘totally insulting Britain’

He was branded a ‘mercenary’ by a Labor MP who accused him of ‘pretending to care about rights’.

Graham Stringer, who has called on Labor MPs to block the deal, told the Daily Mail: ‘Philippe Sands is making a fortune representing the interests of a foreign country.

‘Sands, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General believe that international courts dominated by judges from China are more important than our own democracy.

‘The sooner we take back control the better for the people of this country, not for the foreign courts where lawyers make millions.’

An International Court of Justice judge ruled in 2019 that Britain must hand the islands to Mauritius “as quickly as possible”, effectively forcing Britain to begin negotiations on the archipelago; A former Chinese government official who supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Stringer claimed: ‘Sands pretends to care about rights but in reality he is trying to push back the Chagossians, who do not want control of Mauritius.

‘He is a mercenary working for his own interests with the help of the Chinese Judges.’

Prof. Beatrice Pompe, who took the Supreme Court decision that temporarily prevented the UK government from signing an agreement with Mauritius. He described Sands as a ‘snake’.

The British Chagossian claimed that the high wages he earned showed that he was ‘pretending to work for the good of the Chagossian people, but he was in it himself’.

He added: ‘Forget the little people he used to talk about, who he cared about, who were the victims of crimes against humanity and human rights violations.

‘He openly supports wherever there is cash flow.’

Prof. Sands is not the only lawyer representing Mauritius who knows Sir Keir personally.

In a now-deleted social media post, the lawyer boasted about the Mauritius flag flying over the Chagos Islands

Bertrice Pompe (left), who received the Supreme Court decision temporarily preventing the UK government from signing the agreement with Mauritius, Prof. He called Sands a ‘snake’

His team included Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who knew the Labor leader through her work in international law, and they gave a joint speech at Chatham House in 2013.

The Prime Minister and Alison Macdonald QC represented activists who entered Royal Air Force bases to protest the Iraq War at a joint hearing before the Law Lords in 2006.

Lawyers were paid varying amounts each year by Mauritius; Top budget documents submitted by the Mauritius Prime Minister’s Office show a charge of over £1.3 million in 2022/23.

A fixed fee of £2 million was earned for his work between 2010 and 2015.

Prof. compares Britain’s possession of the archipelago to Russia’s occupation of Crimea. Sands was given an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge last week for his achievements.

In his 2022 book The Last Colony, he claimed that it was racist for Britain to support self-determination for the Falkland Islands but not the Chagossians.

“This suggests there is ‘one rule for whites and another for blacks,'” he wrote.

In evidence presented to the House of Commons in 2024, Prof. Sands wrote: ”Since the British Indian Ocean Territory is illegal under international law, Britain currently occupies part of the territory of Mauritius and the African continent illegally.

‘Unfortunately, it turns out that the operation of the military base in Diego Garcia is not in compliance with international law.

‘As long as Britain’s illegal occupation continues, Britain’s position is no different from South Africa’s position on Namibia (1971 to 1994), Russia’s position on Crimea and other parts of Ukrainian territory (since 2014), or some of China’s claims to the South China Sea.’

The international lawyer offered a ‘national security’ justification for abandoning the archipelago, an argument used repeatedly by the Prime Minister.

Prof. Sands has been friends with Sir Keir for more than 20 years. He was a founding member of Matrix Chambers, where the Prime Minister previously co-chaired the chambers. Lord Hermer also served as Professor in the chambers for 10 years. He worked with Sands.

A group of Chagossians, including Misley Mandarin and her father (pictured), defied the British government’s exclusion zone and set foot on the archipelago on Tuesday

The archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia (pictured), is home to a strategically important joint UK-US military base

Prof. Sands later campaigned for Starmer to become Labor leader, describing him as ‘generous, witty and empathetic’.

The Prime Minister visited Mauritius in 2013 as part of a trip apparently arranged with Sands’ help.

He was granted Mauritanian citizenship and even received the title of Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key to the Indian Ocean, the East African country’s highest civilian award, for his role in ensuring the security of the region.

However, he was removed from his post as the country’s chief legal council in 2024.

Chagossians have previously questioned whether the Government’s close ties to Sir Keir were behind the hasty agreement to return the territory to Mauritius.

After the agreement was announced last year, campaigner Jean-Francois Nellan of the group Chagossian Voices said: ‘Why are they rushing about this? Because he is friends with Prime Minister Philippe Sands?’

Shadow Foreign Secretary Senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel told the Daily Mail: ‘Keir Starmer’s ‘big pal’ Philippe Sands is key to the Chagos Capitulation which is undermining our national interests and security.

‘Like Starmer, Peter Mandelson, Jonathan Powell and everyone else involved in the Chagos scandal, I believe Sands is happy to sell out our country.

‘Conservatives will continue to fight against the Chagos Surrender every step of the way.

‘The Labor Party and their left-wing lawyer friends cannot be trusted to defend Britain on the international stage. ‘Only Conservatives will defend our country’s interests.’

Prof. Sands campaigned for Prime Minister as Labor leader in the party’s 2020 election.

He had interviewed her at a literary festival a year ago for a talk titled ‘Brexit Britain: State of the Union’.

And in 2016, Sir Keir tweeted that he would be “interviewing my friend Philippe Sands tonight to promote his book on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity.”

To get comments, contact Prof. Sands was contacted.

Britain bought the Chagos Islands for £3 million in 1968, but Mauritius argued that it had to give these islands to gain independence from Britain.

A deal that could cost the taxpayer up to £30 billion was signed on May 22 last year despite a last-minute legal challenge from two Chagossians.

The Conservative Party said it was an ‘act of national self-harm’ due to Beijing’s ties to Mauritius, making the country ‘more open to China’.

Donald Trump called it ‘an act of gross stupidity’.

The US President opposed the deal because the archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia, hosts a strategically important joint UK-US military base.

But Mr Trump later backtracked and conceded it was the ‘best’ deal Britain could have made.

Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam praised the agreement as ‘a great victory for the Mauritian nation’.

He said: ‘I have always said that we must achieve sovereignty over the whole of Chagos, including Diego Garcia.

‘Chagos people should be able to live on their island once again.’

An FCDO Spokesperson said: ‘Diego Garcia military base is vital to the security of the UK and our key allies and this agreement ensures that UK-US operations at the base will continue for generations to come.’