Conservative peers have forced Sir Keir Starmer to pause legislation to ratify the UK-Mauritius treaty on the Chagos Islands, following Donald Trump’s claim this week that the deal is an “act of great stupidity” and “weakness” by Britain.
Labour ministers on Friday postponed plans for the bill to return to the House of Lords on Monday in the wake of the Conservatives’ parliamentary move, igniting a heated dispute between the two parties. The Tories, who heavily oppose the treaty, tabled a last-minute motion to the bill, forcing the government’s hand.
Enactment of the agreement would hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago — officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory — to Mauritius. Britain would lease back the island of Diego Garcia that houses a crucial joint US-UK military base for 99 years for a multibillion-pound sum.