Starmer to pursue Chagos Islands deal despite Trump calling it a ‘big mistake’

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Bill will return to Parliament as soon as the timetable allows

The government remains committed to advancing the Chagos Islands deal despite Donald Trump’s latest U-turn on his previous support for the agreement, a government minister has said.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones confirmed the Bill will return to Parliament as soon as the timetable permits, though recent reports suggest a potential delay.

The proposed legislation, originally slated for debate in the House of Lords, was withdrawn last month following a Conservative-led amendment that called for a pause “in light of the changing geopolitical circumstances”.

President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday that the current agreement was a “big mistake” due to the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

The plans would see the UK lease back the base on Diego Garcia. However, Mr Trump described this arrangement as “tenuous” and “no good”.

It comes as the exiled first minister of the Chagos Islands government urged Sir Keir Starmer to pull the deal to hand sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones has confirmed the Bill will return to Parliament (Ben Whitley/PA)

Despite Ms Davies-Jones’s assurances, Politico reported the government will delay bringing legislation underpinning the deal back to the House of Lords, citing an unnamed senior official briefed on the plans.

However, the Foreign Office is understood not to recognise the reporting.

Speaking onTimes Radio, Ms Davies-Jones said: “This deal is essential and crucial for the national security of the United Kingdom and that is the first priority of any government.”

She added: “We will be bringing the Bill back as soon as parliamentary time allows, because this is about national security.”

Ms Davies-Jones recalled the US leader’s changing stance on the issue. Mr Trump has repeatedly publicly supported the deal, but denounced it with similar frequency.

Ms Davies-Jones said: “I think it’s really important to note that during his first meeting with President Trump, the Prime Minister reiterated this deal and President Trump backed it, and said that this lease was a strong lease.

“Just two weeks ago, the president again backed this and said it was the best deal available, and just this week the US administration reaffirmed their commitment to the deal.”

President Trump’s latest post on Truth Social comes after former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a vocal critic of the Chagos deal, returned from a trip to Washington where he discussed the plans with members of the Trump administration.

An view of the Chagos Islands from above (CPA Media/PA)

Mr Trump then posted on Truth Social that the base could be vital for a US strike on Iran. He warned Tehran could attack the UK, and urged Sir Keir: “Do not give away Diego Garcia.”

Both Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Dame Priti Patel, and Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, who are opposed to the deal, backed Mr Trump and told Sir Keir to scrap it.

Tory shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns said the agreement was unnecessary, and said people had been “misled” over the reasoning behind it.

The government says the future of the base has been threatened by recent international court decisions.

The deal is expected to see the UK pay Mauritius around £35bn over the next century – an average cost of £350m a year – to lease back the Diego Garcia base.

“We were told that there were weeks, only weeks for which the base (UK-US military base on Diego Garcia) could continue to operate safely. And now, many, many months on, we’re now finding out that actually the entire basis on which the Labour government said they only had weeks to negotiate and get this done was not true,” Ms Kearns told Times Radio.

The exiled first minister of the Chagos Islands said Sir Keir would be a “hero” if he cancelled the deal.

Misley Mandarin is one of four Chagossians who returned to the islands on a small boat this week to reclaim their homeland. He told BBC Radio 4 that Sir Keir should not give the islands away to Mauritius.

He said: “I’ll say Keir Starmer, as my prime minister, you have to look at this treaty again.

“British Chagossian on this island, yesterday you sent patrol to give us removal notice, the island belong to us.

“Harold Wilson did that… removing the Chagossian from their homeland and that is a stain on British politics but now it’s 2026, Keir Starmer, you could be a hero right now.

“Don’t ratify that deal, cancel that deal and let Chagossians come back to their homeland as British.”