Day: 4 October 2024

Chagossians criticise lack of say in UK deal to hand over islands

News Briefing

“Every time we made a request to be heard we have been excluded,” she said, claiming UK officials said the Chagossian community could not be involved in negotiations between the two countries.

“Today, again, we’ve been excluded,” the 34-year-old postgraduate student told the BBC.

“We need to respect the rights of indigenous people.”

Ms Nellan said she would like to go back to the islands, but not under Mauritius’ control.

“Our right to self-determination – whether we want to be British citizens or Mauritian citizens at all – has been stripped today,” she said.

Tugendhat blames Cleverly, who blames Truss, who blames Boris Johnson for island handover

News Briefing

An extraordinary row broke out yesterday when Keir Starmer’s government announced it was handing the islands to Mauritius … Shortly after leadership rival and former security minister Tom Tugendhat tweeted it was “disgraceful” that a Tory government had started the talks in what was seen as a pointed remark against Mr Cleverly.
However, the Cleverly camp then responded with a briefing claiming it was Liz Truss who ordered the talks to start when she was prime minister.

But Truss has hit back and said it was Boris Johnson who started the talks.

Labour has settled one of the last remaining wrongs of British colonial rule

News Briefing

The government has finally put right one of the last wrongs remaining from British colonial rule.

In the 1960s we severed the Chagos Islands from Mauritius and then expelled hundreds of islanders so we could lease the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia to the US military.

This was later judged illegal by the international courts and criticised by the UN. Now, at last, we have agreed to hand the islands back to Mauritius.

Confected Tory anger at this should be dismissed as the hypocritical rantings of a party which still hankers after empire.

‘Dame of shame’ Labour gives away strategic islands

News Briefing

WHAT a day of ignominy for the new ­Government — not just giving away strategically vital British territory but handing taxpayers an endless bill for the privilege.

Labour has taken mere weeks to capitulate entirely, despite Mauritius’s historic claim having no validity — it never owned the islands — nor being legally binding.

The Chagos debacle weakens us militarily while, incredibly, forcing us to pay unknown sums to Mauritius every year.