A GB News star brutally slammed the Prime Minister after hearing that Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands “surrender” deal could cost ten times more than previously thought. Dawn Neesom appeared on the breakfast show alongside Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello to have her say on the news. Speaking about the Chagos deal, which is now estimated to cost £35 billion according to official documents, the panel reacted that the Prime Minister “doesn’t know what he’s talking about”. The figure, which was released to the Conservative Party under the Freedom of Information Act, is far higher than previously claimed. The Prime Minister said in public that the deal would cost £3.4 billion over a century, accounting for other discounts and inflation.
Dawn reacted and said: “Well, is our Prime Minister a liar or is he stupid? I don’t understand how this does not make sense. We were told that it would only cost £3.4 billion in 99 years – but now we have found out the actual figures are close to £34.7 billion.”
The figures were then lowered by the Labour Government through inflation estimates, and then lowered once again under an accounting method used for long-term projects.
Earlier this year, in May, Keir Starmer confirmed the UK had agreed a deal with Mauritius on the future of the Diego Garcia base and claimed the eye-watering cost was “part and parcel of Britain’s global reach”.
The Labour Government said that the cost per year of the deal, commonly labelled as a “surrender”, is 99 years long and costs British taxpayers £101 million every year.
That totals around £10 billion, but the “net present value” of payments under the deal was claimed to be £3.4 billion after future inflation is considered.
Kemi Badenoch reacted to the news via The Telegraph: “It’s bad enough that Starmer and Reeves’s economic mismanagement has created a £50 billion black hole in the public finances, prolonging the cost of living crisis.
Now, our research has uncovered the Government’s own figures showing Labour’s Chagos surrender is costing the country another £35 billion. Add that to their £50 billion black hole, and it’s clear—when Labour negotiates, Britain loses.”
