Labour has admitted Keir Starmer’s controversial Chagos Islands deal risks collapse if Donald Trump refuses to tear up a 60-year-old treaty.
The legislation, which was set to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, has been delayed, amid warnings it could breach a treaty with the US that asserts the UK’s sovereignty over the archipelago.
The US president sent shockwaves through Downing Street this week with his attack on Sir Keir’s plans to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in a deal the UK government says is necessary to secure the future of the crucial UK-US Diego Garcia military base.
Ministers secured US backing for the deal last year. In February, the president even told Sir Keir during a visit to Washington that he was “inclined to go with your country” and that he had “a feeling it’s going to work out very well”.
But the US president dramatically U-turned earlier this week, using a post on his Truth Social platform to call it “an act of great stupidity” in a move that sent shockwaves through Downing Street.
In return, Sir Keir hit back, accusing him of trying to pressure the UK to back America’s plans to take over Greenland.
The two leaders were also at loggerheads over accusations from Trump that UK troops avoided the frontline in Afghanistan, which the US President eventually rowed back on on Saturday.
In a letter sent on Friday evening, ministers conceded it would not be possible for the Chagos agreement to be ratified without US co-operation to overhaul the 1966 treaty, The Telegraph reported.
Lord Callanan, the shadow Foreign Office spokesman in the House of Lords had written to the government asking whether the Chagos deal would be legal if the 1966 treaty remained unchanged.
Africa minister Lady Chapman replied, confirming that it would not be possible for the Chagos deal to be ratified “without the relevant domestic law and international arrangements in place”, the paper said.
Meanwhile, Misley Mandarin, the first minister of the newly-established Chagossian government-in-exile, is expected to fly to the US on Sunday to urge Mr Trump to halt the Chagos deal.
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said the Tories had been engaged in “quiet diplomacy” with the Republicans, to “flag how this deal is a risk to national security”.
The new delay in the House of Lords follows warnings that the handover of the islands could breach the 60-year-old treaty with the US that asserts the UK’s sovereignty over the islands.
But the government has furiously accused peers of interfering with Britain’s national security, and “irresponsible and reckless behaviour”.
The legislation is intended to provide a firm legal basis for the operation of the strategically important Diego Garcia Military Base, which has been used by UK and US forces since it was built on the islands in the 1970s.
Ministers have claimed the handover deal is necessary because international court rulings in favour of Mauritian claims to sovereignty had threatened the future of the facility.
With promised updates to the 1966 agreement yet to materialise, the Tories tabled a motion in the Lords on Friday morning, demanding a delay in the treaty’s ratification for fear of otherwise breaking international law.
The legislation underpinning the deal had been set to go back to the upper chamber for further scrutiny on Monday, but that will no longer happen.
A government spokesperson said: “The government remains fully committed to the deal to secure the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia, which is vital for our national security.
“This is irresponsible and reckless behaviour by peers, whose roles is to check legislation, not interfere with our national security priorities.”
