The Prime Minister has been warned not to risk empowering China by handing away sovereignty of the Chagos Islands ahead of Thursday’s talks with President Trump.
In a final-hour message, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has called for this “dangerous nonsense” to stop and urged the public to write to Sir Keir Starmer and their MPs.
He said: “In a week where all our focus should be on Ukraine, Keir Starmer is asking Trump whether we can give away the Chagos Islands – British territory – to Mauritius, an ally of China, and pay billions for the privilege.”
Urging voters to press for the PM to “end this farce”, he said: “It seems like Keir Starmer cares more about his extreme idea of international law and his reputation amongst his international legal friends than he does about our national security. This dangerous nonsense needs to stop. Keir Starmer can and must end this farce today.
“We don’t have to do this – give away the money, endanger the base, help China. Let’s focus on Ukraine and its security, on our nation and our security.”
Mr Jenrick claims the Mauritian claim to the islands is “nonsense”.
He said: “It was the French who first occupied them until 1814 when Napoleon loses the Battle of Paris and the French agree to give Mauritius and all of their islands in the region, including Chagos to the British. Mauritius has no links with Chagos.
“In fact, the Chagos Islands are more than 2,000km away from Mauritius. Almost no Mauritians had or have ever lived on Chagos.
“In fact, the only people who have are a few thousands Chagossians – a small community who Keir Starmer has never met with.”
The Shadow Justice Secretary tore into the argument that the UK must abide by a 2019 International Court of Justice ruling which found Britain unlawfully separated the islands to form a new colony.
He said: “This is the core of Labour’s argument but there are so many problems with it. Most importantly, the ICJ’s opinion was non-binding, advisory, it said so itself.
“A fundamental principle of international law is that these judgements are non-binding unless the countries themselves, the parties, agree to the dispute to be settled by the Court. We never consented for this dispute to go before the Court so the ICJ has no jurisdiction.
“There is no legal reason whatsoever why we have to give up the Chagos Islands.”
Mr Jenrick insisted the islands are of vital security importance, saying: “The UK-US Diego Garcia military base is on the islands. Nuclear operations are conducted there. A vital communications station is located there.”
He described the plan to lease the base for 99 years as a “house built on sand”, warning of China’s influence over Mauritius.
He said: “Mauritius is close to China, Mauritius is indebted to China. There are 47 different Chinese development projects in Mauritius already…
“And look what happened in Hong Kong, where the Chinese ripped up an agreement they made with us.”
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “The Chagos deal is extremely important for our security, for US security. The US are rightly looking at it.
“When it’s finalised we’ll put it before the House with the costings.”
