Chagos ~ Another U-turn On The Way?
Pressure grows on Starmer to ditch 'terrible' plan to hand Chagos Islands to Mauritius as Labour MPs say it should be an axed.Pressure mounted on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch his ‘terrible’ plan of surrendering the Chagos Islands amid mounting opposition from his own LabourMPs.The Prime Minister faced calls to heed the concerns of Donald Trump and scrap the plan entirely – not just pause it.Senior Labour backbench MP Dan Carden said: ‘This is not about obeying Trump - it's about using common sense and doing the right thing for the country.’The plea came after the surprise news on Friday that Sir Keir was pulling the next stage of legislation needed to ratify the controversial territory – which includes a giant joint UK/US military base – to Mauritius.The Bill was due to be discussed in the House of Lords on Monday but the draft law was withdrawn just days after the US president came out strongly against the handover.It also came after Tory peers demanded to know if the agreement complied with international law, with the Tories warned it would break a UN treaty between the UK and US in 1966 which stated: 'The territory shall remain under UK sovereignty.'But the Government insist that the deal – which critics say could eventually cost the UK £35 billion in payments to Mauritius, more than 10 times the Government’s estimate - will still go ahead.A Government spokesman said: ‘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.’This is irresponsible and reckless behaviour by peers, whose roles is to check legislation, not interfere with our national security priorities.’https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15494287/Pressure-Starmer-plan-Chagos-Islands-Mauritius-Labour-
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