Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been plunged into fresh chaos after a minister suggested his plan to cede sovereignty of the British territory had been paused after Donald Trump urged him to scrap it.
In what appeared to be another humiliating U-turn for Labour, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) minister Hamish Falconer said on Wednesday that the government was “pausing” for discussions with the US before bringing the bill to ratify the deal back to parliament.
The Foreign Office later claimed that Mr Falconer “misspoke” and rapidly issued a clarification saying that “there is no pause”.
However, the FCDO finally conceded that the plan to give the islands to Mauritius, along with £35bn to lease back the crucial UK/US military base on the island of Diego Garcia, is now dependent on Donald Trump’s administration agreeing to it.
Last week, the US president dramatically withdrew his support for the deal, telling Sir Keir he would be making “a big mistake”.
It comes as a group of Chagossians, led by their first minister in exile, Misley Mandarin, told The Independent in an exclusive interview that their return to one of the islands last week is “not a publicity stunt”, adding: “We are here for the long term. We are resettling the islands.”
The islanders spoke to The Independent via satellite link from one of the islands, which was a coconut plantation until a previous Labour government forced the Chagossians to leave in the 1960s.
As events heat up over the fate of the crucial Indian Ocean islands, the government is set to go to court on Thursday to overturn an injunction barring it from evicting the islanders who oppose the Mauritius deal and want to return, creating a British protectorate and guaranteeing the future of the base.
The latest confusion over whether the deal will go ahead comes after Mr Falconer said the UK was pausing the deal for further talks with the US after Mr Trump’s “very significant” intervention.
He told MPs: “We have a process going through parliament in relation to the treaty. We will bring that back to parliament at the appropriate time. We are pausing for discussions with our American counterparts.”
The admission by the minister follows a long campaign and lobbying of the White House to kill off the deal involving the Tories, Reform, Chagossians and their supporters.
A Foreign Office spokesperson later insisted “there is no pause”. It added that the government had never set a deadline for the proposed legislation to be brought back to parliament.
“We are continuing discussions with the US, and we have been clear we will not proceed without their support,” they said.
Last year, Sir Keir agreed a controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
The UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120m annually during the 99-year agreement to lease back the site, a total cost in cash terms of £35bn.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump hit out at Sir Keir in his second U-turn on support for the deal. In a post on Truth Social, the US president branded the move a “big mistake” because of concerns over the joint military base.
His withdrawal of support came after he appeared to indicate his support for the deal last year, before criticising it in January and again in February.
Meanwhile, former MP and army officer Adam Holloway and Mr Mandarin spoke to The Independent from the settlement they have erected on one of the islands.
They are being backed by wealthy donors, including Singapore-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, who recently handed £9m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Mr Holloway described how their biggest issue is “finding water supplies” after he had discovered four of the old wells on the island. A boatload of supplies is due to arrive with them on Thursday; they are in the process of erecting makeshift accommodation and using solar-powered units.
Mr Mandarin, whose father has returned with him to the island after being evicted as a teenager, defiantly said: “I have given up my job in London and my flat. We are here to resettle the islands; this is not a publicity stunt. We are here to stay long term.”
He pointed out that their arrival “changes the facts” and discredits claims by the UK government that “nobody lives on the islands”.
Mr Holloway added: “The only way they are leaving here is if they are made to leave by force.”
The government has an unofficial deadline for having the deal ratified by May, or it will have to restart the entire process, so a potential pause could be the end of a contentious policy and another U-turn for Sir Keir’s government in its first 20 months.
Mr Falconer suggested the pause might take place when answering questions on Wednesday from MPs, including Mr Farage, who attempted to visit the Chagossian settlement over the weekend.
The Reform UK leader claimed the Maldives is poised to lodge a counterclaim regarding the Chagos Islands with the International Court of Justice “in just a few days”.
Mr Farage said: “I wish to inform the government that we are just a few days away, in my opinion, from the Maldives issuing a counterclaim to the International Court of Justice to say, if anybody has the right to the sovereignty of those islands, it is the Maldives and not Mauritius.
“And I would urge you to pause all of this.”
Mr Falconer branded this a “flagrant incident of ignoring travel advice”, while former defence secretary Ben Wallace hit out, saying that no MP can visit the archipelago without pre-clearance and accusing him of performing Trump-style stunts.
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