Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel writes about Labour's Chagos surrender

For the last two years, Keir Starmer, his Attorney General Lord Hermer and his national security adviser Jonathan Powell have plotted and schemed to give up British sovereignty and pay Mauritius at least £35billion to appease the demands of left-wing lawyers and activists.


They have ignored the national interest and threats to our security to pursue the adulation and applause of their lefty pals.

The hard and diligent work of Conservatives forced Labour to pause the implementation of these plans, already saving taxpayers around £200million from the first year of payments.


But instead of confining Starmer's greatest foreign policy failure to the dustbin of history, it seems that Andy Burnham wants to revive it.

With his commitment to waving the white flag of surrender, Burnham is already failing the British interest before he even moves into Number 10.

When Britain needs to invest more in our Armed Forces, defence equipment and security, he wants to squander at least £35billion, in a deal that's backed by China, Russia and Iran.

Like Sir Keir, Burnham has failed to understand how important a strategic asset the Chagos Islands are.

The military base at Diego Garcia enables our US allies to project their strategic capabilities across the Indian Ocean, including the Middle East.

Surrendering our sovereignty over Chagos weakens our control and capabilities.

It enables those countries that threaten our interests to undermine our defence and security.

In recent years, China has invested huge resources in courting Mauritius.

They're investing there, ingratiating themselves with political leaders and training thousands of Mauritian officials.

It would only take a small number of them in key positions to enable China to infiltrate arrangements, access information and disrupt UK-Mauritius relations.

Labour, under Sir Keir and now Mr Burnham, seems oblivious to this risk.

Surrendering sovereignty over the Chagos Islands also puts our nuclear deterrent at risk.


Mauritius is a signatory to the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibits nuclear weapons on the African continent.

Once we surrender the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands over to them, they could insist that our base on Diego Garcia is nuclear-free.

The world is an increasingly uncertain and dangerous place, and giving up our sovereign assets and capabilities only plays into the hands of our enemies.

What's more, surrendering the Chagos Islands to Mauritius betrays the Chagossian community whose ancestral homes are on those islands.

They have been let down over many years and are keen to resettle on the islands under the proud British Indian Ocean Territory flag.

Labour's Chagos surrender sidelines them. Burnham's silence on this is shocking, and it is disgraceful that he has yet to address his plans for the community.

Mr Burnham is weak and vacuous, and our enemies will see through him. And it won’t stop with Chagos.

The very same left-wing activists that declared lawfare on Britain over Chagos will pursue other agendas based on bogus claims of injustice.

With Mr Burnham in No10, they know they'll have a friend who'll cave in to their demands and back their Britain-hating agenda.

There will be a new Prime Minister in two weeks’ time, but they won't change Labour's weak approach to foreign affairs and our standing in the world will carry on falling.

While Labour fails to defend our national interests, Conservatives will continue to hold them to account and campaign to keep Chagos British.