The Foreign Office has admitted it doesn’t how much money has been spent on the Chagos Islands deal.
The admission was made after The Independent submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), asking for details on how much money was handed to Mauritius as part of the deal, as well as asking for the other expenses involved in striking the deal.
The department admitted that details on how much money has been spent so far is “not centrally held and is not readily retrievable”, adding that responding to the request would take a “substantial amount of work and staff hours”.
While the department said no money has yet been handed over to Mauritius directly as part of the deal as the treaty is still being finalised, it was unable to produce a figure for how much has been spent on legal costs, travel costs and other expenses.
It comes amid growing concern over the cost of the controversial deal to the taxpayer, as question marks hang over whether or not the deal will succeed as a result of ambivalence from the new Mauritian government and the incoming Trump administration.
The government announced in October it had reached a political agreement to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following negotiations which began in 2022.
The prime minister and his foreign secretary David Lammy have insisted they had no choice but to hand over the islands, including Diego Garcia where the UK and US have their major air base.
Mr Lammy has since doubled down claiming that the deal is a good one guaranteeing the use of the airbase for the next 99 years. But the government has refused to publish details and costs of the deal.
The government has repeatedly claimed it is not normal practice to reveal the value of payments made by the UK for military bases across the globe due to security risks.
However, previous written answers and statements showed that the government has published the costs of bases.
Pressed on the issue of cost by The Independent last month, Downing Street said: “We will be finalising the details and the legal text as part of the deal and then coming forward with the details for scrutiny and treaty ratification in the usual way, and its at that point that we will set out the full details of it, including the costs”.
This newspaper previously revealed that the new Mauritian government has ordered an independent review of the Chagos Islands agreement, throwing the future of Sir Keir Starmer’s deal into even greater uncertainty.
The new administration in Mauritius, which took over after elections last month, has previously expressed doubts about the terms of the agreement, with the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, travelling to the country in an attempt to smooth over any issues.
But sources in Mauritius have since said the new government feels it was “kept in the dark” over the agreement.
Even if Mauritius does agree to stick with the agreement, the deal could be vetoed elsewhere, with Mr Trump’s team hardening its opposition to what it considers a major security risk for the West.
Shadow Armed Forces Minister, Mark Francois warned Trump’s opposition to the deal could be the “death knell for the whole ill-judged misadventure”.
“The government’s Chagos chaos continues,” he said. “This surrender deal was supported by an outgoing US President and was negotiated with a now defeated Mauritian PM, whose successor has just effectively disowned it.
“Given the absolutely critical importance of the strategic base on Diago Garcia to our US allies, if the incoming Trump administration now opposes the deal - privately or even publicly, - that might just be the death knell for the whole I’ll-judged misadventure.”
The FCDO has been contacted for comment.
