Sir Keir Starmer has suffered 4 “humiliating” defeats in parliament over plans handy sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The archipelago is residence to the British Indian Ocean Territory, and its largest island, Diego Garcia, hosts a joint US-UK navy base.
Now plans to switch the islands again to Mauritius have suffered a setback, after the House of Lords inflicted 4 defeats on the federal government’s deal.
What had been they?
The primary defeat involved proposals to lease Diego Garcia back from Mauritius for 99 years, at the price of some £101m per yr.
An modification was proposed that funds to Mauritius ought to cease if the Diego Garcia base may now not be used. The federal government opposed it, however was defeated by eight votes.
The Lib Dems then dealt the federal government a second blow with an modification proposing that Chagossians within the UK ought to get a referendum on the deal.
A 3rd defeat got here within the type of a Tory modification that might drive ministers to publish detailed costings of funds to Mauritius.
Then the federal government confronted a closing defeat when the Lib Dems proposed that parliament be given oversight of spending linked to the treaty, permitting MPs to cease funds to Mauritius if it breaches the phrases of the deal.
Members of the British Chagossian neighborhood show exterior the Excessive Courtroom. Pic: Reuters
Tories condemn ‘horrible’ laws
However the authorities did handle to narrowly defeat a proposal to cease the islands being handed over until the transfer was backed by a majority of Chagossians in a referendum.
Shadow overseas secretary Dame Priti Patel stated Labour had confronted a “humiliating defeat”.
She added: “Keir Starmer is weak and incapable of standing up for Britain at residence and overseas. Britain’s defence and safety are in danger due to this horrible laws.”
The deal will now return to the Home of Commons, the place the federal government may have the prospect to throw out the Lords’ amendments.
Learn extra:
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UN committee ‘deeply concerned’ by Chagos deal
Priti Patel. Pic: Reuters
How did we get right here?
Negotiations between the UK and Mauritius over the islands started in 2022, when the Conservatives had been in workplace.
Previously a French possession, the Chagos Islands had been ceded to Britain in 1814 and fashioned into the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965.
Britain displaced its native inhabitants within the early Nineteen Seventies and since then solely navy personnel have been allowed entry.
Mauritius has lengthy sought sovereignty over the islands, taking its case to the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, which agreed Britain was obliged to finish its administration over the territory.
