Sir Keir Starmer has signed an agreement to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal that will cost £101 million per year.
The deal involves leasing back a crucial military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, for 99 years and comes after a last-minute legal challenge.
He added: “£101 million a year is the average cost. The net overall cost is therefore £3.4 billion overall. That’s over the 99 years.”
The UK will retain full operational control of Diego Garcia, including the electromagnetic spectrum satellite used for communications which counters hostile interference.
A 24-nautical mile buffer zone will be put in place around the island where nothing can be built or placed without UK consent.
Not agreeing the deal would mean the UK could not prevent China or any other nation setting up their own bases on the outer islands or carrying out joint exercises near Britain’s base, Sir Keir said.
We would have to explain to you, the British people and to our allies, that we’d lost control of this vital asset,” he added.
The agreement had been due to be signed on Thursday morning but was temporarily blocked by an injunction hours before.
High Court judge Mr Justice Goose granted an injunction at 2.25am against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, one of two British women born on the Chagos Islands who is set to bring legal action against the Government over the deal.
A different judge later said the injunction should be discharged after an urgent hearing.
Some Chagossians, many of whom ended up living in Britain after being removed from the archipelago, have protested against the agreement on the grounds that they were not consulted.
In 2019 after a request by the United Nations General Assembly, the U.N.'s top court issued a non-binding ruling calling on Britain to give up control of the archipelago after wrongfully forcing the population to leave in the 1970s to make way for the U.S. base.
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