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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.
UK officials say Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s vocal criticism of the treaty this week helped draw it to Trump’s attention. The US president had previously endorsed the agreement but blindsided Downing Street by attacking the deal on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.
Starmer told MPs on Wednesday that Trump had censured the Chagos deal “for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland”.
The UK prime minister vowed he would “not yield” on Greenland despite an earlier threat of sanctions if the UK did not support Trump’s plans for the Arctic island.
Dame Priti Patel, shadow foreign secretary, said the legislation’s pause was “a major victory for everyone standing against Keir Starmer’s disgraceful Chagos surrender” and served notice that her party would continue to fight it.
The legislation’s pause is only temporary, UK officials insisted on Friday, dismissing the Conservatives’ claim that the UK-Mauritius deal is incompatible with international law.
The Tories’ parliamentary motion demanded a delay to the ratification of the treaty until the conclusion of talks between London and Washington about the Chagos deal’s impact on a separate older UK-US treaty relating to the islands.
Rushing the deal before these talks have completed could break international law, the Conservatives claimed.
Lord Martin Callanan, shadow Tory foreign office spokesperson in the Lords, said in December “the government admitted they need to amend the 1966 treaty with the US . . . but still haven’t concluded that work”.
Callanan claimed the UK-Mauritius agreement, which would cost about £35bn over its 99-year lifespan, would threaten Britain’s national security.
A government spokesperson said Britain remains “fully committed to the deal to secure the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia [the largest island in the Chagos archipelago], which is vital for our national security”.
The spokesperson added: “This is irresponsible and reckless behaviour by peers whose role is to check legislation, not interfere with our national security priorities.”
A Labour Lords official said postponing the bill’s return was “simply a response to Tory peers having flexed their much greater numbers in the House by tabling a wrecking amendment to a government bill just hours before the end of business ahead of a scheduled debate on the next sitting day”.
