Keir Starmer was hammered over ‘surrender’ on the Chagos Islands today during bad-tempered PMQs clashes.
The premier was accused by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of handing Mauritius the British territory ‘so north London lawyers can boast at their dinner parties’.
But Sir Keir insisted there was a need for ‘legal certainty’ over the status of the military base on Diego Garcia – saying the deal was needed for ‘national security’, without specifying why.
He also claimed that Ms Badenoch had refused an official briefing on the situation, something the Tories denied.
After the Commons clashes, No10 said the Mauritian PM Navin Ramgoolam’s boasts about the deal were ‘factually inaccurate’ and designed for a ‘domestic audience’.
There have been claims that the agreement to hand over sovereignty will involve the government paying the state up to £18billion.
That would be for a 99-year lease to host the strategically crucial military base – although much of the sum would be front-loaded.
However, Labour alarm at the prospect of the pact has been mounting, with fears reaching the Cabinet that the ‘terrible’ arrangement will be a gift to Reform and ‘impossible to understand’.
Fingers are being pointed at Sir Keir himself and his close friend Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, who is said to have been involved in talks.
The pair are both former human rights lawyers. There have been long-standing questions about the status of the Chagos Islands under international law – although many critics dismiss the sovereignty disputes.
Keir Starmer is facing a Cabinet revolt over the ‘mad’ Chagos Islands deal after Mauritius boasted the UK has made more concessions
There are claims that the agreement to hand over sovereignty of the British overseas territory will involve the government paying up to £18billion
Answering questions in the Mauritian National Assembly yesterday, Navin Ramgoolam said Sir Keir had discussed the prospect of a deal with him in a telephone conversation on Friday.
The premier was accused by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of handing Mauritius the British territory ‘so north London lawyers can boast at their dinner parties’
Ms Badenoch told the Commons: ‘When Labour negotiates, our country loses. Yesterday, we heard the Government offered £18billion for Mauritius to take our territory in the Chagos Islands.
‘This is money that belongs to our children and their children. This is an immoral surrender so North London lawyers can boast at their dinner parties.’
Sir Keir said: ‘This is a military base that is vital to our national security.’
He later continued: ‘A number of years ago, the legal certainty of that base was thrown into doubt. Let me be clear and I’ll pick my words carefully, without legal certainty, the base cannot operate in practical terms as it should.
‘That is bad for our national security and it’s a gift to our adversaries.’
Ministers have been denying that the £18billion figure is right.
The PM’s spokesman said: ‘There was some reporting on this yesterday in relation to the Mauritian prime minister.
‘He has got those figures, or at least the way he was characterising it, wrong.
‘His summary of the deal was clearly aimed at a domestic political audience, but it was factually inaccurate.
‘There has been no change to the cost of the deal or the terms of the lease.’
One senior government source told the BBC: ‘At a time when there is no money, how can we spend billions of pounds to give something away?’
A Labour backbencher told MailOnline: ‘It feels like nobody has thought how this will look to the average person.
‘Reform will go around saying there was no money for the winter fuel allowance but there’s billions for this deal. It makes fighting them so much harder.’
Answering questions in the Mauritian National Assembly yesterday, Navin Ramgoolam said Sir Keir had discussed the prospect of a deal with him in a telephone conversation on Friday.
And he said Sir Keir wanted to ‘push ahead’ with a deal that would including giving Mauritius a veto on extending a proposed 99-year lease on the strategically important Diego Garcia airbase used by the United States.
Critics including senior figures in the Trump administration and on the opposition benches in the Commons have warned that the handover risks giving a powerful boost to China in the Indian Ocean.
The UK had reached an agreement on returning sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius with the previous Mauritian government last year, but Mr Ramgoolam insisted on renegotiating the deal when he came to power in November.
A renegotiated Chagos deal, which Mr Ramgoolam said confirmed Mauritian sovereignty over the islands and required mutual agreement to any extension of the lease on Diego Garcia, is currently being reviewed by the Trump administration.
Mr Ramgoolam told the National Assembly: ‘President Trump is not a wolf. Let him see if the agreement is good or not.
‘Now the British have, late in the day, decided that, yes, it is better to let the new administration have a look, that is what the situation is.’
The UK has denied reports that the deal to lease back Diego Garcia would originally cost £90 million a year for 99 years, or almost £9 billion – which, if the cost doubled, would rise to £18 billion.
The Foreign Office also insisted there has been ‘no change’ to the terms for the extension.
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs: ‘The comments of the prime minister of Mauritius are for him to make. There has been no change to the substance of the deal, nor the overall quantum agreed.
‘We believe we have achieved a deal that’s in the interests of the UK and Mauritius and, indeed, of the United States and our allies.’
The deal to give up sovereignty and lease back the base was backed by former US president Joe Biden, but Donald Trump’s administration has not yet given its support.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, an ally of the US president, told MPs the future of Diego Garcia has not been ‘high on their agenda’ in the early days of the new administration.
But, he warned, ‘when the Americans wake up to the fact that this has been done wholly unnecessarily’ the Trump government could respond with tariffs on UK goods.
He argued that the International Court of Justice’s advisory decision on sovereignty in 2019 has ‘no force of legal power whatsoever’.
Asked about the reported costs of the deal this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News: ‘Clearly when this Government came in negotiations were already under way about the future of that base and its future was not secure.
‘Our priority is security, of course, so those negotiations continue. There were some figures that were being [..] I read them, I’m sure your viewers did too yesterday. The Foreign Office has confirmed those figures were wrong but we need to wait and find out exactly where these negotiations end up before we’ll know for certain.’
Fingers are being pointed at Sir Keir himself and his close friend Lord Hermer, the Attorney General (pictured), who is said to have been involved in talks
Pushed on the potential impact of the payments to Mauritius on the Government’s so-called economic black hole, Mr Reed added: ‘We have to secure the future of that military base. It’s in a very important strategic location globally.
‘It’s not just the UK, of course, that has an interest here, so does the US, and the Government is making sure that we hear the views of the US before we take a final decision.
‘But we need to wait and see what the final outcome of those negotiations are, but I can confirm those rather extraordinary figures we heard being banded around yesterday are not correct.’
