The prime minister has been urged to “come clean” on the real cost “rotten” Chagos deal after he put on hold the announcement of the signing. Sir Keir Starmer is yet to reveal the total cost of the agreement, yet it is believed to include £90million of annual payments to Mauritius. The PM has now put on hold the last stage of the deal for fear it will cause a Labour civil war with backbenchers who campaigned against his recent welfare cuts.
The eye-watering Chagos bill could be frowned upon by Labour MPs who recently expressed their disapproval of the cuts to disability payments. Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins is now urging the government to publish the full cost of surrendering the islands.
“It is outrageous that, at the same time as desperately trying to cut welfare spending, Labour are paying for the privilege of leasing back one of our own military bases. It is a complete scandal,” Ms Atkins told The Telegraph.
She added: “If they won’t scrap this rotten deal altogether, they must at least publish in full the cost of surrendering the Chagos islands.
“When Labour negotiates, Britain loses. Sadly, it will be some of the most vulnerable people in society suffering because of Keir Starmer’s incompetence.”
On Friday, the government confirmed that the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands had not yet been completed, despite senior sources in Downing Street telling The Times that an agreement was “ready to sign”.
The prime minister delayed the signing of the deal following concerns of an in-party backlash at a time when MPs voted on welfare cuts.
Upon signing an agreement, the government will be required to publish full details of the cost of the deal, which prompted Sir Keir to delay.
One inside source revealed that Downing Street concluded that it was politically “toxic” to finalise the Chagos agreement while justifying cuts to welfare spending.
“They know that they’re going to be attacked by the Tories and Reform for giving up sovereignty of the Chagos islands but it makes it much worse if they’re also being attacked from their own side,” the source said.