A Conservative bid to “wreck” the Government’s Chagos Islands deal is “a simple political stunt”, a Foreign office minister has said.
Stephen Doughty reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to an agreement that would hand over sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius and secure the operation of a joint UK-US base on the island of Diego Garcia for at least 99 years.
It comes after the Government postponed a debate on the deal in the House of Lords, following the Tories tabling an amendment that called for a pause “in the light of the changing geopolitical circumstances”.
Their bid to halt the legislation came after US President Donald Trump branded the deal an “act of great stupidity”, despite previous support from the White House.
The Conservative amendment calls for the Government to see that the agreement does not breach a 1966 treaty signed with America which confirms UK sovereignty of the islands.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel claimed in the Commons on Monday that the Chagos deal will “violate our existing international obligations”.
She said: “In their rush to appease the wishes of their left-wing lawyer friends, Labour overlooked this very 1966 treaty between the UK and the US, which states that the British Indian Ocean Territory shall remain under the United Kingdom sovereignty”.
Responding, Mr Doughty said the Government was aware that the UK-US agreement would need to be amended, that it had been a number of times before and that there are “ongoing talks to update the UK-US exchange of letters”.
He said: “We’ve been clear throughout that, before the UK can ratify the treaty, we will need to do the following: pass primary and secondary legislation, update the UK-US agreement, the exchange of notes, and put in place arrangements on the environment, maritime security and migration…
“So to try and present this as some sort of ‘gotcha’, that we haven’t looked at the law, I mean, it is absolute nonsense, and it’s quite frankly, deeply, deeply irresponsible.
“We have made excellent progress towards finalising an updated UK-US agreement. And of course, for the record, because they won’t have looked at any of the history of this, the UK-US agreement has been updated in 1972, 1976 twice, 1987 and 1999, so this is a regular process. We’ve had to update it for a range of reasons in the past.
“We were always clear about the need to put in place the necessary domestic and international legal processes in place to deal with this. So the idea that this is something new, some sort of ‘gotcha’ or otherwise, is just simply for the birds.”
The minister added that “the tone, the braying, the noise” from Conservative MPs reflects “that this is a simple political stunt from the Opposition, and I think deeply, deeply regretful, when we are talking about such important matters of national security”.
Addressing the postponement of the debate, Mr Doughty said: “The Lords consideration of Commons amendments has been delayed because the Opposition tabled a wrecking amendment hours before the (Lords) rose and a day before a scheduled debate.”
Deputy leader of Reform UK Richard Tice pressed for a ministerial resignation “if the Americans will not sign the update to this agreement”.
He added: “Thank heavens the US administration have now realised that they were deliberately misled by our national security advisor, deliberately misled by the Foreign Office, and therefore… they are angry.”
Mr Doughty replied: “I’m not going to take any lessons in national security from the fake patriots over there.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street have said that Britain and the US are “continuing to work together” to ensure the future operation of the Diego Garcia military base.
No 10 accused accused peers of “irresponsible” and “reckless” behaviour and said the timing for a rescheduled Lords debate on the Chagos Bill would be set out “in the usual way”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday: “On the Lords debate, the Government remains fully committed to the deal to secure the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia, which is vital for our national security.
“The timing for the rescheduled debate on the Bill will be announced in the usual way. And this is irresponsible and reckless behaviour by peers whose roles are to check legislation not interfere with our national security priorities.”
No 10 refused to be drawn on whether the agreement was raised in Sir Keir’s call with the US president over the weekend.
“UK and US officials are continuing to work together to ensure that the necessary arrangements are in place for the future operation of the base, as they have been for many months, and we will continue that work,” the official said.
Mr Trump criticised the deal last week as tensions between Europe and America flared over his threats to slap tariffs on nations opposed to his ambitions to take control of Greenland, which he has since rescinded.
The Chagos Bill is currently in the later stages of parliamentary scrutiny known as “ping pong”, where legislation is batted back and forth between the Commons and Lords until agreement is reached between the Houses.
