Mauritius rejects Sir Keir’s Chagos deal

As if Starmer’s Labour government hasn’t had enough bad news lately, it now transpires that Mauritius has rejected the Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal. Mauritian PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam has told his parliamentarians that the agreement was just not good enough and is now calling for improvements. Back to the drawing board…

Speaking to his MPs, Ramgoolan revealed he had already spoken to UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell about the change in plan, remarking:

Mauritius made clear that while it is still [our] belief to conclude an agreement with the UK, the draft agreement that was shown to us after the general election is one which, in our view, would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect from such an agreement.

Mauritius therefore accordingly submitted counter-proposals to the UK so that an agreement which is in the best interests of Mauritius can be concluded. The response of the UK to our counter-proposal was received yesterday afternoon and is now currently being considered.