US will put UK in tariff regime with EU over Chagos deal, claims Farage

The US will put the UK “together with the European Union in their tariff regime” over the Chagos Islands deal, Nigel Farage has said.

The Reform UK leader said “there is no legal basis” requiring the Government to relinquish sovereignty of the region, while Tory shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel described the deal as “one of the worst foreign policy failures in modern British history”.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government plans to hand the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius but pay to lease back the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.

Unlawful

An advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found the separation of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965 to be unlawful and the UK obliged to end “its administration of the Chagos Islands as rapidly as possible”.

During an urgent question in the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Farage said: “An advisory judgment from the (International Court of Justice) has no force of legal power whatsoever. Indeed, America disregard it so much they’re not even members of it.

“I am pretty convinced – and by the way, they’ve been very busy with foreign policy, the Americans, just lately, so perhaps no wonder that Diego Garcia has not been high on their agenda – but when the Americans wake up to the fact that this has been done wholly unnecessarily, I wouldn’t be surprised if we find ourselves together with the European Union in their tariff regime.

“Can the minister confirm there is no binding legal basis for this transfer of sovereignty whatsoever?”

Full agreement

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said: “We’ve been very clear, as indeed the previous government was, that this base was not on a secure footing, and this has been done in full agreement with the US national security apparatus.”

He added that the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia “plays a critical role in countering an array of threats” to security and the Government would ensure “it is in operation well into the next century”.

Dame Priti said the Government was paying billions “for the privilege” of “surrendering an absolutely critical strategic defence asset, which we operate together with our closest security partner”.

She said: “I think this House deserves answers today – has the minister given away our ability to unilaterally extend the period over which the UK can exercise sovereign rights on Diego Garcia? Because the Mauritius prime minister says he has.

“Has he given away our ability to exercise sovereign rights over Diego Garcia entirely? And if so, what is the cost? Is it £9 billion? Is it £18 billion?”

Mr Doughty said it was the Conservatives, a government Dame Priti was part of, who started the negotiations over the Chagos Islands, adding that Labour was committed to the UK’s base on Cyprus as well as to Gibraltar and the Falklands.

‘Praying’

Tory former minister Andrew Mitchell said neither former foreign secretaries James Cleverly nor Lord David Cameron would “ever have done the deal that the Government are now intent upon”.

He added: “I think (Mr Doughty) must be praying every night for a get-out-of-jail-free card, that when the American administration do come to look at this deal, they will veto it and get the Government off the hook.”

Mr Doughty said: “I’ve set out very clearly the reasons for doing this deal. It’s the right deal for our national security and that of our allies. (Mr Mitchell) knows that, because his government started the process, and we are absolutely engaged in constructive discussions with our US counterparts.”

Mr Cleverly reiterated that neither himself nor Lord Cameron would have agreed to the terms accepted by the Government, saying “the point of a negotiation is not to get any deal but to get a good deal, and if you do not get a good deal, then you should walk away from the table, as we did”.

Liberal Democrat MP Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) said he was one of three MPs who had attended a meeting with a delegation of Chagossians visiting Parliament, who said they had not “been in any way meaningfully consulted about this deal”.

Mr Doughty said the Government would “continue to engage with Chagossian communities” and that “the interests of Chagossians are very much at the heart of this agreement”.