Britain has wronged the Chagossians again

I could not resist rushing to the High Court to witness the eleventh-hour challenge to the deal to give away the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, brought by two valiant Chagossian women. Outside, their supporters chanted ‘Chagossians British’ and waved their passports. Inside, it was a legal massacre, with the government’s lawyers insisting that the Foreign Secretary’s power to make treaties is not reviewable by the courts, that David Lammy had ‘broad powers of discretion’ to make what deals he liked with Mauritius and that there had been no promise to consult with the Chagossians on its terms, which meant no promise had been broken.

As the judge reeled off the grounds for overturning the injunction that had paused the deal overnight, it became brutally obvious that by not consulting them on the deal in any meaningful way and saying it didn’t have to, Britain was doing a second great wrong to British Chagossians.