OPINION
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is accused of surrendering the Chagos Islands (Image: PA)
Starmer will soon meet with Donald Trump in what is the biggest moment of his premiership so far.
When the two men finally sit together in the Oval Office, the main item on the agenda will be how to bolster European security from Vladamir Putin and the Russian war machine.
For all my differences with Starmer, I wish him well in his endeavour to bolster American support.
But when the cameras leave and two men chat privately there will be another item of the agenda: the future of the Chagos Islands.
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Starmer will seek to persuade Trump that it is in America’s interests for the UK to hand sovereignty of the islands on which a crucial UK-US military base sits to a partner of China.
It’s a ridiculous discussion that we shouldn’t be wasting precious time and leverage on.
Very simply the Chagos Islands are British. End of. The problem is, Starmer is a lawyer and not a leader. Starmer’s attempts to surrender the Chagos Islands are nothing short of a betrayal of Britain.
He promised to put the British people first, but this is the complete opposite. Starmer wants to pay Mauritius a reported figure of £9 billion to rent a military base on the islands that’s already ours.
He’s placing his reputation amongst the gilded international legal elite first and the country’s national interest last. Pensioners are going cold without their winter fuel payments while Starmer wastes taxpayer money on Mauritius.
You’re probably thinking, why doesn’t Starmer just walk away from the negotiation table and reaffirm the Chagos Islands as British territory?
You’d be right. The Chagos Islands have been under British sovereignty since as far back as 1814. The claims by the Mauritian Government that the Chagos Islands belong to them should be brushed aside.
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Almost zero Mauritian people had or have ever lived there. The only people who have are a few thousand Chagossians – a community Starmer has never even met.
It was only in 1982, when a far left party win power in Mauritius, that their Government started to claim the British ‘coerced them out of their land’.
But this claim is complete nonsense. When it started being made, the Mauritian leader who negotiated the agreement— a Mauritian patriot who led the nation to independence — said so.
He said he wasn’t forced to do a deal and that claiming Chagos would make Mauritius look “ridiculous in the eyes of the world.” Starmer’s negotiating team should quote his words back to the current Mauritian Government.
The reason the Mauritian Government’s claims are being discussed again is because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an opinion that the UK should give up the Chagos to Mauritius.
But there’s so many problems with it. Judges appointed by Vladamir Putin and made the decision.
Another judge is currently involved in a claim to make the UK Government pay £18 trillion in reparations. Most importantly, the ICJ’s opinion was non-binding. In other words, there is no legal reason — at all — we have to give up Chagos. We can choose to.
But we do not have to. It would be nothing short of insanity to willingly give these islands up. It’s home to a crucial base that we share with the US in a strategically important part of the world.
Former Ministers who have seen the security advice from our intelligence agencies think the decision to give up the islands is an immense act of national self-harm.
So, why is this deal really happening? Who is behind it all? This deal is happening because three powerful men, who have risen to the very top, hold an extreme interpretation of international law that most people would find ludicrous. On our side of the negotiating table, you’ve got .
In 2013, Starmer had a 5 star, ‘all expenses paid for’ trip to Mauritius where he gave a lecture and discussed the Chagos Islands.
You’ve also got Lord Hermer, the Government’s top lawyer. You might remember him as Gerry Adams’ lawyer. He’s an old friend of Starmer’s and a donor to him.
He’s described ‘almost every element’ of the British Empire as ‘deeply racist.’ On the other side, leading the Mauritian negotiating team, is Philippe Sands.
He’s also a close friend of Starmer’s and worked with Hermer as a barrister for many years. The deep and murky connections between the three men are deeply troubling. They must be stopped – and fast. If you agree, let Labour know. It’s not too late to stop the surrender.