Why did Britain give the Chagos Islands back?

The idyllic beach of île aux cerfs, east of Mauritius Island

(Image credit: Manuel Breva Colmeiro)

published 14 October 2024

“In pursuit of their juvenile, half-witted anti-colonialism”, Labour has “betrayed our strategic interests, delighted our enemies, weakened our alliance with the US”, let down the Chagossian people and set a “terrifying precedent” for the British populations of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, says Daniel Hannan in The Telegraph.

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands (which foreign secretary David Lammy ceded to Mauritius last week “without bothering to inform MPs”, notes The Times), is “the Malta of the Indian Ocean, occupying a perfect strategic position” within reach of “four of the seven global chokepoints that funnel maritime traffic”. The Anglo-American base built after 1968 has “proved its military value again and again”.

Under the treaty of transfer, the UK will pay Mauritius rent for a 99-year lease, but 99 years is an “eye blink to China” and in the meantime, Mauritius may lease neighbouring islets to the world’s fastest-growing naval power. “China, which sees Mauritius as its key regional ally, is goggling at us with incredulous glee.”

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What role have the Tories played?

Tories have been raging at Lammy even though it was James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary, who “started the ball-rolling” on talks in 2022, says Stephen Bush in the Financial Times.

The fact is that Mauritius is not part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and it seems more likely that the situation will stay that way if the UK is paying its rent than if it isn’t and “insisting that it is not going to honour its half-a century-old promise” (in 1965, London detached the Chagos from the soon-to-be independent Mauritius, pledging to return them when they were no longer of use to the US military).

Indeed, the recent deal has “rather more continuity” with the Tories’ approach to the islands than Labour’s, implying that the rage of some Tories mostly stems from a self-interested desire to “censure the government no matter what”.

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Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.