When Sir Keir Starmer announced on Thursday that the UK will cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, he was met with widespread outrage. Opposition politicians were quick to blast the Prime Minister over the move, pointing to the strategic importance of the land, with ex-PM and one-time foreign secretary Boris Johnson slamming the decision as ‘total nonsense’. Questions have been raised about it all – with Guido Fawkes yesterday pointing out that Starmer’s close friend Philippe Sands KC happens to be Mauritius’ chief legal adviser and a longtime campaigner for the country to control the land. How very interesting.
And on the issue of other British overseas territories, Sir Keir has been rather cagey. Starmer refused today to say whether he would hand over more land – like Gilbraltar and the Falklands. When quizzed by reporters today whether he could guarantee no other British overseas territory would be signed away under his Labour government, the Prime Minister ducked the question. He insisted to journalists that:
The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base, hugely important to the US, hugely important to us. We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.
Er, right. That’s not quite a yes or no response…
Quelle surprise, the Chagos decision was welcomed by Argentina’s foreign minister Diana Mondino on Thursday – who used the announcement to quite promptly call on the UK to give up the Falklands territory. The Islands’ governor Alison Blake has, however, insisted that the UK’s commitment to the British land ‘remains undiminished’, adding: ‘I would like to reassure you that the legal and historical contexts of the Chagos Archipelago and the Falkland Islands are very different.’
If only Starmer could be quite as reassuring, eh?
Comments