The Tories are demanding to know how the military is set to pay for Sir Keir Starmer’s £30billion Chagos surrender, after a minister finally confessed the US will not pay a penny. In May, the Prime Minister finally signed over ownership of the vital islands in the Indian Ocean at a cost of up to £30billion over the lifetime of the deal.
Despite initially claiming the deal would see Mauritius rake in £101million a year, the real figure is much higher. In the House of Commons on Thursday, the Tories’ Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge demanded to know whether the United States – which has joint use of the military base on Diego Garcia – will contribute to the cost.
Minister Stephen Doughty finally admitted that the UK alone will be paying for the deal despite supposed benefits to Washington.
Mr Doughty finally admitted on the record: “The United States contributes to the operations on Diego Garcia, and rightly so.
“There is establishment of that in relation to the exchange of notes between the UK and the United States. It is not contributing towards the costs of the treaty deal.”
The rent for the base alone is broken down as follows: £165million a year for the first three years, £120million a year for the next 10; then £120million plus inflation for years 14-99.
On top of that, the UK has agreed to cough up £45million a year for 25 years for development in Mauritius and £40million for a Chagossian trust fund.
Assuming an average of 2% inflation over the next 99 years, this adds up to more than £30billion.
Responding to the confirmation about US contributions, Mr Cartlidge told the Express: “After months of dodging questions, Labour ministers have finally confirmed our worst fears – British taxpayers will foot the entire £30billion bill for the Chagos surrender, with the US not paying a penny for the lease on our ‘joint’ base.”
“Unlike Labour’s pathetic fence-sitting, we unequivocally backed the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
“But given the importance of Diego Garcia to both countries, we have to ask if this is a fair outcome for our taxpayers. Once again, when Labour negotiates, Britain loses. After this week’s shambolic U-turn on welfare, it’s even more urgent that Labour scrap their crazy Chagos deal and instead fund rapid rearmament for the British military.
“If not, where else is the money for defence going to come from?”
Mauritius and international human rights lawyers demanded the handover, which Sir Keir caved in to after entering No 10 despite little evidence Britain had to give them up.
There are now new security concerns as China cosies up to Mauritius, with the Beijing ambassador saying it supports “deepening full-fledged exchanges and co-operation between China and Mauritius”.
Tories had hoped that Donald Trump would veto the deal, to no avail.
Additional concerns centre around part of the deal, which suggests Britain may have to inform Mauritius – an ally of Iran – before air strikes are launched from the Diego Garcia base.