Tom Tugendhat suggests Mauritius deal could open door to China getting base on Chagos Islands Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister and Tory leadership candidate, has suggested that China could end up establishing a military base on one of the Chagos Islands as a result of the UK’s decision to cede sovereignty. Britain will still have delegated sovereignty over Diego Garcia, the only inhabited island in the archipelago and the site of UK/US airbase which is regarded as being of key strategic significance by London and Washington. But, in an interview with the World at One, Tugendhat said that under the deal announced today Mauritius has not given assurances that it will not lease any of the other islands to another country. “Mauritius is free to rent them out to anybody else, including, for example, China,” he said. Tugendhat, who chaired the Commons foreign affairs committee before he became a minister, said that he did not accept the government’s argument (see 1.40pm) had to surrender sovereignty because it was losing cases in international courts. He cited Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, as one of several lawyers who have said the International Court of Justice was wrong to rule against the UK on this (Buckland wrote about this here) and Tugendhat said the UK could have ignored the court’s advisory opinion anyway. Tugendhat said he agreed the Chagossians had been treated shamefully. But he said they could have been allowed to return without sovereignty being transferred, and he claimed the Mauritian government was not interested in their plight until they took it up for political reasons in the 1990s. And he was particularly critical of James Cleverly, his Tory leadership rival and a former foreign secretary, for starting negotiations on the transfer of sovereignty. This is another area where, I’m afraid, we’re seeing legalism replacing leadership. And we saw this legalism in the Foreign Office in November 2022 [when Cleverly was foreign secretary] when the Foreign Office was pushing for this and nobody stopped it until finally we got leadership under Lord Cameron [Cleverly’s successor as foreign secretary]. Asked to respond to Jonathan Powell’s claims that he was just engaged in posturing for Tory leadership contest purposes (see 1.40pm), Tugendhat said that Powell had been a Labour activist for many years and that his criticism of Tugendhat was “silly” because he (Tugendhat) had been opposing plans to transfer sovereignty of the islands for many years. It was an issue he took up as foreign affairs committee chair, he said. Afternoon summary The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony. The Foreign Office insists that the deal will “settle historic sovereignty claims, protect our national security and close a potential illegal migration route”. It has been welcomed by figures ranging from President Biden to Jeremy Corbyn. But all four Tory leadership candidates have strongly criticised the decision, claiming it is a sign of weakness and a risk to national security, even though one of them, James Cleverly, was foreign secretary, when the talks on transferring sovereignty started. In a statement to parliament on 3 November 2022, Cleverly said: The UK and Mauritius have agreed to engage in constructive negotiations, with a view to arriving at an agreement by early next year. David Clark, a Labour former special adviser in the Foreign Office, accused Cleverly of blatant hypocrisy. Well this is disappointing. I thought Cleverly was a cut above the populist buffoons around him. Turns out he’s just as much of a hyperbolic truth-twister as the rest of them. The negotiations to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands were initiated by him as a Minister. Hundreds of homeless young people, including dozens who are pregnant or have children, are being illegally turned away by councils when they ask for help, the Guardian has learned. Keir Starmer has repaid thousands of pounds in freebies to restore trust in politics, a minister has said as she ruled out accepting more hospitality. Boris Johnson has insisted he would have won another election if he had not been forced from Downing Street, arguing in his new memoir that he broke no rules with lockdown parties and was the victim of a conspiracy. Jeremy Corbyn welcomes Chagos Islands deal as "milestone for decolonisation" Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who now sits in the Commons as an independent MP, has been campaigning on behalf of Chagossians for many years. He has welcomed today’s announcement as a “milestone for decolonisation”. Keir Starmer’s polling figures have not been great recently but, according to these YouGov figures, on at least one metric he is doing very well; some 79% of people approve of his decision to return donations worth £6,000. Back to the homelessness figures (see 10.33am, 11.16am and 12pm), and Vicky Spratt, the housing journalist, has posed these on social media explaining what they mean. Bleak statistics today explain why temporary accommodation is probably the biggest immediate problem faced by Labour... New govt figures show that the number of households facing homelessness has exceeded (320,000) between 2023-2024, the highest on record. This is an 8% rise on 2022-2023 and means that the population of homeless people in England is now greater than the population of Nottingham (stat is from @crisis_uk). The number of households forced to live in temporary accommodation remains at record levels with 117,450 households housed like this by their council. That’s a 12.3% rise on last year. As of 31 March 2024, a fifth of all households with children in temporary accommodation (22.5%) had been there for 5 years or more. There are now 151,630 children living in temporary accommodation, which is enough to fill 5,700 classrooms...just let that sink in... Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has released a statement about the UK’s deal with Mauritius about the Chagos Islands. If anything, it is even more positive about it than President Biden’s. (See 2.03pm.) Here’s an extract. The United States welcomes today’s historic agreement between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the status of the Chagos Archipelago. The United States has strongly supported negotiations between the two countries over the past two years and is pleased to see the successful outcome of this diplomatic effort. Kemi Badenoch has joined the other three Tory leadership candidates (see 12.31pm) in claiming that the government’s decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius creates a security risk. Two days after Israel is attacked directly by Iran, Labour have put our vital base in the Indian ocean at risk. Anyone who has been paying attention to the geopolitical climate will understand the strategic necessity of these islands. Labour has either not been paying attention or don’t care. Either way, this decision weakens UK influence across the world. As mentioned already, the government says the deal will “protect our national security”. The US government takes the same view. (See 2.03pm.) Unusually, a Labour MP has criticised the Chagos Islands decision. But, unlike the opposition, Peter Lamb is not opposed to the return of sovereignty. He wanted Chagossians to be deciding their own future. This is very disappointing. The decision over the future of the islands belongs the Chagossian people, it’s not for the UK to bargain away. 60 years on from their exile, they’ve been let down again. Lamb is MP for Crawley, where he used to be council leader. The town is home to the largest community of Chagossians in the UK (around 3,500). Back to the Boris Johnson book, and John Crace, the Guardian’s sketch writer, has also been taking a look at it. Weirdly, Jennifer Arcuri does not feature in the index of Boris Johnson book Turns out that his wedding to Carrie was one of the happiest days of Boris Johnson’s life. Mainly because he wasn’t paying for it Owen Bowcott has written a good analysis of the Chagos Islands deal. He says Liz Truss was PM when the UK government started talks with Mauritius about transferring sovereignty. “She may have been keen on removing a diplomatic obstacle to post-Brexit British trading relations in Asia,” he says. Here is the full article. Brexit opponents used IRA fears to ‘trap UK in EU’, Boris Johnson book claims The risk to peace in Northern Ireland from Brexit was exaggerated and was used by opponents “to trap the UK in the EU”, Boris Johnson has claimed in his memoir, Peter Walker reports. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has joined those Tories criticising the Chagos Islands deal. This is a shameful decision. Starmer’s reckless capitulation over the Chagos Islands severely undermines UK national security. We all knew Lammy was weak but now it’s official: he’s China’s useful idiot too. A dark day for our country’s sovereignty. Tom Tugendhat suggests Mauritius deal could open door to China getting base on Chagos Islands Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister and Tory leadership candidate, has suggested that China could end up establishing a military base on one of the Chagos Islands as a result of the UK’s decision to cede sovereignty. Britain will still have delegated sovereignty over Diego Garcia, the only inhabited island in the archipelago and the site of UK/US airbase which is regarded as being of key strategic significance by London and Washington. But, in an interview with the World at One, Tugendhat said that under the deal announced today Mauritius has not given assurances that it will not lease any of the other islands to another country. “Mauritius is free to rent them out to anybody else, including, for example, China,” he said. Tugendhat, who chaired the Commons foreign affairs committee before he became a minister, said that he did not accept the government’s argument (see 1.40pm) had to surrender sovereignty because it was losing cases in international courts. He cited Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, as one of several lawyers who have said the International Court of Justice was wrong to rule against the UK on this (Buckland wrote about this here) and Tugendhat said the UK could have ignored the court’s advisory opinion anyway. Tugendhat said he agreed the Chagossians had been treated shamefully. But he said they could have been allowed to return without sovereignty being transferred, and he claimed the Mauritian government was not interested in their plight until they took it up for political reasons in the 1990s. And he was particularly critical of James Cleverly, his Tory leadership rival and a former foreign secretary, for starting negotiations on the transfer of sovereignty. This is another area where, I’m afraid, we’re seeing legalism replacing leadership. And we saw this legalism in the Foreign Office in November 2022 [when Cleverly was foreign secretary] when the Foreign Office was pushing for this and nobody stopped it until finally we got leadership under Lord Cameron [Cleverly’s successor as foreign secretary]. Asked to respond to Jonathan Powell’s claims that he was just engaged in posturing for Tory leadership contest purposes (see 1.40pm), Tugendhat said that Powell had been a Labour activist for many years and that his criticism of Tugendhat was “silly” because he (Tugendhat) had been opposing plans to transfer sovereignty of the islands for many years. It was an issue he took up as foreign affairs committee chair, he said. Biden welcomes UK"s "beneficial" deal with Mauritius over Chagos Islands, saying it protects operation of Diego Garcia Nigel Farage also claimed the Chagos Islands deal would make Washington “furious”. (See 2.01pm.) But President Biden has issued a statement welcoming the proposed treaty. In it is he said: I applaud the historic agreement and conclusion of the negotiations between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the status of the Chagos Archipelago. It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes. This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is the site of a joint U.S.-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security. It enables the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face. The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century. Nigel Farage claims returning Chagos Islands to Mauritius "strategic disaster" Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has also criticised the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it a “strategic disaster”. Giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster. Our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted. Labour are making the world a more dangerous place. Britain treated Chagossians "shamefully", says Jonathan Powell, who as Starmer"s envoy helped secure sovereignty deal In his interview on the World at One Jonathan Powell, the former Tony Blair aide who helped to negotiate the Chagos Islands/Mauritius deal as an envoy for Keir Starmer, said the Chagossians were treated “shamefully” when they removed from the islands in the 1960s. He said: What we did in 60s, what Britain did, was wrong. We treated them shamefully. And that’s why previous governments have given them British nationality, British citizenship, and so on. So we setting up a fund that will be administered with the Mauritian government, because this is now Mauritian territory, so we can’t say who goes back. Powell said that, under the deal, Chagossians will not be able to return to Diego Garcia, where Britain will retain delegated sovereignty for at least 99 years. (See 1.19pm.) But they would be able to return to other islands if they wanted, he said. Many of Chagossians are either Mauritian citizens or have the right to Mauritian citizenship. Going back to the islands … it’s going to be difficult. They’re very remote and very hard to live on, and the life there before was very difficult. But yes, we are committing ourselves to helping on visits, and we’re committing to a fund to help on resettlement, if that’s possible. Envoy on Chagos Islands treaty says it is "ludicrous" for Cleverly to criticise deal Tory government was also working towards Jonathan Powell, who as Tony Blair’s chief of staff played a major role in negotiating the Good Friday agreement, had a key role in finalising the Chagos Islands’ deal. Only a month ago he was appointed by Keir Starmer to be his special envoy on the negotiations with Mauritius over the future of the islands. In an interview with Radio 4’s the Word at One, Powell said that over the past month he had negotiated “intensively” and to get this agreement and that the deal was “genuinely historic”. He was also scathing about the comments from the three Tory leadership candidates on the deal. (See 12.31pm.) Asked for his reaction, he said: I do think these comments from the Tory leadership candidates are a bit silly. James Cleverly was leading these negotiations not that many months ago with the Mauritian government [when he was foreign secretary]. The reason the British government started negotiating with the Mauritians was because of the law cases. We lost a law case at the ICJ [International Court of Justice], and then we lost another on in the Law of the Sea tribunal. Legal advice was clear that we were not going to be able to sustain that position. So that previous government started a negotiation. What this government has done has been able to conclude it, because that government managed to lose the trust of the Mauritian government during the process. So for the people who were involved in that negotiation to start criticising the outcome of something they couldn’t achieve is absolutely ludicrous. When it was put to Powell that the previous government did not want a deal like this, he did not accept that. No, it’s not because of that. The negotiators who’ve been working on this are the same civil servants all the way through. It’s because they are criticising it because they want to try and score points in their desperate attempt to win the leadership. Grant Shapps, the Tory former defence secretary, has also criticised the decision to give Mauritius sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. He posted this on social media. This is absolutely appalling. Surrendering sovereignty here creates read across to other British bases. It’s a weak and deeply regrettable act from this government: British governments until now refused to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands because of the strategic importance of the Diego Garcia airbase, which is mostly used by the US. Under the agreement announced today, Britain will be able to exercise sovereignty rights over the base for at least 99 years. The joint statement from both governments says: Both our countries are committed to the need, and will agree in the treaty, to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security. For an initial period of 99 years, the United Kingdom will be authorised to exercise with respect to Diego Garcia the sovereign rights and authorities of Mauritius required to ensure the continued operation of the base well into the next century. The Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has also criticised the government’s decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, suggesting means Gibraltar’s future as a British overseas territory could be at risk. He posted these on social media. The British Government is now actively undermining British interests overseas. A total surrender. Speaking to contacts in Gibraltar, they are incredibly concerned following the Chagos Islands capitulation - ‘the thin end of the wedge’... The message is loud and clear - this Labour Government is a disgrace. Russell Findlay taunted over his support for Liz Truss in his first FMQs as Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay taken part in first minister’s questions since he was elected as the new Scottish Conservative leader last Friday. The baptism was barely fiery. With only a hint of nerves at the beginning of his questioning, the former investigative journalist had a decent first outing, interrogating John Swinney on the SNP government’s plans for a national care service, after revelations that more than £28m had been spent on the project – which would centralise adult social care and social work into a single service - just days after councils pulled their support. Swinney responded that he supported the new service to deal with precisely the issues like delayed discharge that Findlay was setting out. He also lost no time in reminding the chamber that Findlay was a supporter of Liz Truss – no doubt a theme the SNP will return to frequently in coming months. Findlay would be wise to spend his early days as leader repairing trust amongst his group of MSPs after a surprisingly bitter leadership campaign. But he must also take on the challenge posed by Reform UK after the party managed to secure 7% of the vote share across Scotland, despite having no infrastructure or leadership north of the border. He also needs to navigate a change of emphasis as all candidates for the top job agreed it was time to stop relying on opposition to independence as their guiding principle.