Starmer’s Chagos deal red-flagged in US Congress: “Invaluable strategic importance,” says influential Committee
Trump and J D Vance now being briefed on nuclear impotence imposed by this Starmer sovereignty surrender
Montage © Brexit Facts4EU 2025
Paying neo-Communist country to take UK/US strategic asset, with Communist ally China, compromises deterrent capability
We are now only weeks away from the upcoming State Visit to the UK in September by President Trump and it seems increasingly likely that Sir Keir Starmer is going to face yet more embarrassment in any joint press conference with the US President.
And this time it's about the Bomb - guaranteed to cause uproar in Labour ranks.
Below we are presenting the details, in a co-production with Stand for Our Sovereignty.
The highly influential Congressional Appropriations (‘budget’) Committee has urged the US Administration to “engage” with the Prime Minister over his surrender of the Chagos Archipelago to the close China ally, Mauritius. In its report on the 2026 budget, released just over one week ago, the Committee has a great deal to say about a large number of countries, but when it comes to the UK it is the Chagos surrender that is singled out.
Crucially, the issue of the complete conflict between this proposed deal by the Labour government and Mauritian policy on nuclear weapons has now been raised with President Trump during his recent ‘holiday’ in Scotland and is also being presented to Vice President JD Vance ahead of his visit to the UK in the autumn. At stake is the ability to use the base on Diego Garcia in all its current capabilities, including the presence of nuclear weapons.
Added to this is the apparent agreement to inform the Mauritian government in advance - which means informing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with which Mauritius is now closely allied – of any use of the Diego Garcia military base for military operations against other countries. With China now becoming increasingly allied with Putin’s Russia, this could mean any military response from the UK and US to external threats from any of the most likely threats will be compromised.
“How we learned to start worrying and love The Bomb”
Paraphrasing the sub-title of Stanley Kubrick’s film classic “Dr Strangelove”, instead of stopping worrying about the nuclear bomb, President Trump may soon start to worry about it a great deal. This is only too apparent in his decision to position US nuclear submarines closer to Russia’s coast, announced at the weekend.
The issue now being discussed in Republican Washington circles is the continued use of Diego Garcia as a base to store and deploy nuclear weapons, for use either by submarines or the long-range stealth bombers which are based there. This concern does not only apply to the US but to the UK too.
No government will discuss the current deployment of its military assets, for obvious reasons. Neither the UK nor the US administrations will confirm or deny that Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Peninsula, is the site of a nuclear arsenal. That said, retired military personnel have confirmed unofficially and ‘on deep background’ that this is the case. Even without any such confirmation, logic dictates that the base – given its vital geo-strategic importance – has always been used in this way.
The problem? Mauritius is a ‘nuclear-free zone’ by international treaty
Both the UK and Mauritius are parties to a treaty little known in the UK creating an ‘African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone'. The UK has specific derogations in respect of BIOT, the British Indian Ocean Territory which includes the Chagos Islands, but the extreme-left government of Mauritius is a firm advocate.
With UK sovereignty of the Archipelago ceded by Starmer to Mauritius, it seems inevitable that the demands of this Treaty will be exercised, regardless of what it might say in terms of ‘protections’ contained in the Treaty signed with Mauritius by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Facts4EU first reported on this disastrous deal over six months ago
Our coverage back then caused the Opposition to ask questions.
Sir Keir's Chagos negotiating partner arrested
At the weekend, the former British colony of Mauritius was rocked by the news that its former Prime Minister – with whom Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy agreed the original deal to surrender the Chagos Islands only a matter of months ago – has been arrested on charges associated with corruption and money-laundering.
This was first published in a report by Facts4EU on 17 Feb 2025.
Yesterday the well-respected, influential US commentator and head of the Thatcher Institute of the US Heritage Foundation, Dr Nile Gardiner, applied more pressure:
“The fight continues in the United States against the disastrous Chagos Islands surrender by the Starmer Labour Government, a huge gift to Communist China.”
“In a major development in Washington, the Republican-led House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations has raised the issue of the hugely controversial, high-risk Chagos Islands deal between the UK and Mauritius (a close ally of Beijing), the growing threat from Communist China, and the implications for the future of the vital US military base at Diego Garcia.”
“The Congressional Committee urges the US Secretary of State to engage further with the British Government on assurances that vital US strategic interests are protected. The fight continues in the United States against the disastrous Chagos Islands surrender by the Starmer Labour Government, a huge gift to Communist China.
“We can expect significantly increased scrutiny of the Starmer Government's Chagos Islands deal on Capitol Hill, especially ahead of the upcoming State Visit to the UK in September by President Trump. The Chagos issue is not over in Washington, and major red flags are being raised in the United States.”
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Where are the islands of Mauritius and where are the Chagos Islands it claims?
The Chagos are a group of islands in the Indian Ocean owned by the United Kingdom. Situated 1300 miles from Mauritius, the islands were settled from East Africa and were never governed by Mauritius throughout history. Between 1814 and 1965, the Chagos Archipelago was administered by the United Kingdom as a dependency of its British colony 1300 miles away.
© Google Maps - click to enlarge
The moves to stop Starmer and Lammy delivering a disaster for the UK
The Treaty negotiated by Foreign Secretary Lammy with close involvement from the Prime Minister still has to be ratified by Parliament. At present it is not clear the extent to which a full Parliamentary debate will be allowed, with a proper amount of time devoted to it.
There is a cross-party motion signed by 83 MPs from the Conservatives, Reform UK and some Northern Ireland MPs and other moves which we are not able to publish at this stage.
Overall, the way this whole affair has been handled is yet one more example of how the Government is behaving increasingly like a dictatorship and is riding roughshod over normal democratic and legal oversights.
Observations
Facts4EU urges all readers to write to their MPs, requesting that they be no party to any ratification of this deal with the unstable, extreme-left government in Mauritius.
To add insult to injury, it now transpires that Mauritian contractors must be used for any work on the base at Diego Garcia as first preference, and that such personnel fall under Mauritian, not British law while there. In effect this means that any idea of a normal UK or US military base where only UK or US contractors are used will now be thrown open to full espionage.
Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.
[ Sources: Dr Nile Gardiner | US Congressional Committee on Appropriations | Mauritian Government | No.10 | FCDO | House of Commons Library ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 05 Aug 2025
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