UK drops Chagos agreement following Trump’s opposition. 14 hours earlier. Joe Pike, politics correspondent. Getty. Keir Starmer has put on hold his Chagos Islands agreement due to deteriorating ties with Donald Trump, following the US’s failure to officially endorse it. Trump had pressed Starmer to abandon the deal, even though he had previously backed the pact. In January, the president labeled the plan an “act of total weakness.” UK government officials state they are not fully scrapping the agreement—which would transfer sovereignty of the British territory to Mauritius—but lack time to enact legislation before Parliament prorogues in the coming weeks. Still, a new Chagos bill is not anticipated in the King’s Speech in mid-May. The UK reportedly has yet to receive a formal exchange of letters from the US, a legal requirement for the treaty to take effect. The Chagos Islands, formally the British Indian Ocean Territory, lie in the Indian Ocean and have been under British control since the early 19th century. Under the deal, the UK would relinquish sovereignty to Mauritius while paying an average of £101m ($136m) annually to lease back a joint UK-US military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. A government spokesperson remarked: “Diego Garcia is a vital strategic military asset for both the UK and the US. Ensuring its long-term operational security remains our top priority—it’s the core purpose of the deal. We maintain that the agreement offers the best path to safeguard the base’s future, but we’ve always emphasized we would only move forward with US backing.” We continue to interact with the US and Mauritius. The UK was working to pass legislation that would embed the Chagos agreement into law. The legislation was nearing final approval, but officials indicate time has now expired. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch stated on Saturday that her party was “really pleased” the agreement had been abandoned. “That deal should never have been on the table,” she told reporters in London.
