Trump backed Chagos deal after review by US intelligence agencies – Keir Starmer
The Prime Minister insisted his deal to hand over the islands to Mauritius had the US president’s blessing, despite his subsequent criticism.
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Donald Trump initially backed his Chagos Islands handover deal “in very clear terms” following sign-off by US intelligence agencies, despite the president’s recent change of tune.
Mr Trump last week attacked the deal to cede sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius as an “act of great stupidity”.
But the Prime Minister stressed the Trump administration “concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support” after it was reviewed “in detail at an agency level” in the months after entering the White House.
He pointed to public expressions of support from the US president and his top team, who praised the deal as a “monumental achievement”, securing the long-term future of the joint UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Mr Trump’s criticism of the deal last week came as transatlantic tensions flared over his ambitions to take control of Greenland, with Sir Keir accusing him then of making the comments with the “express purpose of putting pressure” on the UK to lift its objections to his demands over the Arctic island.
Sir Keir did not say whether he discussed Chagos with the Republican president in their call at the weekend, a readout of which made no mention of the issue.
Asked whether they spoke about the deal on Saturday, the Prime Minister told reporters travelling with him to China on Wednesday: “I’ve obviously discussed Chagos with Donald Trump a number of times.
“It has been raised with the White House at the tail end of last week, over the weekend and into the early part of this week.
“The position, as you know, is that when the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level.
“Once they’d done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal.”
Sir Keir pointed to statements from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, who said in May 2025 that the deal secures “key US national security interests in the region”, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in the same month that Mr Trump had “expressed his support for this monumental achievement during his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer at the White House”.
The Labour leader would not be drawn on whether Mr Trump understood the deal, reiterating “it was an agency review that was conducted in the US before they then concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support, did support and did so in very clear terms”.
The US State Department, National Security Agency and CIA were all invited to examine the draft deal in “the most rigorous inter-agency approval process imaginable”, The Times reported, citing a source, adding they had no objections as long as the US could continue to use Diego Garcia.
The islands in the Indian Ocean will be handed over to Mauritius under the deal.
But Britain will lease back the military base on the island of Diego Garcia, which is jointly used with the US, for at least 99 years, while making payments to Mauritius.
The Government postponed a House of Lords debate on Chagos which had been scheduled for Monday, underscoring uncertainty about the future of the archipelago.
The Bill aimed at enshrining the deal in law is currently in the later stages of parliamentary scrutiny known as “ping pong”, where legislation is batted back and forth between the Commons and Lords until agreement is reached between the Houses.
The delay in the latest round came after the Conservatives tabled an amendment calling for a pause “in the light of the changing geopolitical circumstances”.
The amendment called for the Government to ensure the agreement does not breach a 1966 treaty signed with the US which confirms British sovereignty of the islands.
Labour blamed the postponement on Tory peers’ “wrecking amendment” and said Mr Trump’s remarks had no bearing on the decision.
It is not yet clear what date the Bill will next be debated in the Lords. Downing Street said it will be “announced in the usual way”, with a spokesman denying it is being indefinitely delayed.
The No 10 spokesman said Britain and the US are “continuing to work together” to ensure the future operation of the Diego Garcia military base.
Tory shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel told the Commons on Wednesday: “Labour’s £35 billion Chagos surrender deal is falling apart every single day and it’s high time that the Prime Minister tore up this atrocious surrender treaty and put Britain’s interests and our defence first and our security first and Britain’s hard-pressed taxpayers first.”
Labour’s foreign minister Seema Malhotra said Tory criticisms were “political point-scoring at the expense of our national security”, and she reminded MPs the Conservative Party had begun negotiations with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands.
