Starmer under fire amid row over Chagos deal cost

Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire at PMQs over the cost of the government's deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Earlier, the UK said newspaper reports that the effective price tag has jumped from £9bn to £18bn were "entirely inaccurate".

But the reports were nevertheless seized on by the Tory and Reform UK leaders to attack the agreement, which is currently on hold pending a review by the US.

Mauritius has also now denied the £18bn figure, although neither side has specified an alternative amount.

Under the terms of the deal, the UK will continue to lease one of the islands, Diego Garcia, which contains a UK-US military airbase, for a period of 99 years.

The plan to cede sovereignty of the archipelago, known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory, was announced last October after a deal was reached with former Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth.

But he was swept from power in a general election a month later, and Navin Ramgoolam, his replacement, has criticised the deal negotiated by his predecessor.

The agreement has also been mired in uncertainty after Donald Trump's re-election as US president, given several US Republicans have argued it could deliver a potential security boost to China.

Mauritius says it was ready to sign a deal last month - but the UK asked to press the pause button to allow Trump to examine it first.

The UK government has never confirmed the estimated cost of payments under the deal, but press reports have put the figure at around £9bn.

Speaking in the Mauritian Parliament on Tuesday, Ramgoolam said the UK had agreed to front-load some of the payments following objections from his government over the original terms of the deal.

He also said the transfers, due to be made in dollars, would now be subject to a variable rather than fixed exchange rate, arguing payments under the previous deal were not "inflation-proof".

"What's the point of getting money and then having half of it at the end?" he added.

These comments appear to have triggered the reports in the British press that have since been denied.

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch seized on the reports as she faced Sir Keir at Prime Minister's Questions, telling MPs: "Yesterday, we heard the government offered £18bn for Mauritius to take our territory in the Chagos Islands."

Referencing July's decision to cut winter fuel payments, a pension top-up, she added: "He's freezing pensioners, while shovelling money to Mauritius."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage asked how he should justify the UK being "prepared to give away a military base and pay £18bn for the privilege" to constituents who are "losing their winter fuel allowance and feeling the pinch".

Ramgoolam also said the UK had agreed to give up a right to unilaterally extend the lease by 40 years - something denied by the British Foreign Office, which says there has been "no change to the terms of extension".

Downing Street has dismissed Ramgoolam's summary of the talks as "clearly aimed at a domestic political audience".

Mauritius, a former British colony, has long argued that it was illegally forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for its own independence in 1968.

The UK has come under increasing international pressure to hand over control of the archipelago after various United Nations bodies, including its top court and general assembly, sided with Mauritian sovereignty claims in recent years.

The previous Conservative government opened negotiations over their legal status in late 2022, but has attacked the agreement struck by Labour.

Labour has argued that the inevitability of further rulings against the UK has put the military base in legal jeopardy.

The Tories and Reform UK have rejected this, arguing a binding judgement on the issue has not been made by international judges.

Speaking at PMQs, Sir Keir said legal uncertainty meant the base would not be able to "operate in practical terms", although he did not say why.

He added that "some within the Conservative party" were aware of the reasons for this, and this was "why the last government started negotiations".