Prime minister to face MPs at PMQs before hosting Ukraine’s president in London
While Andy Burnham prepares for PMQs, he may be amused by a peculiar row that has broken out between Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, the leaders of the two most prominent rightwing opposition parties. It is about the Chagos Islands – a subject on which until recently the Tories and Reform UK were united in their opposition to Labour’s proposed deal transferring sovereignty to Mauritius.
The Telegraph has a story by Genevieve Holl-Allen quoting what Farage, the Reform UK leader, recently told a US podcast. He said he would have handed it over to President Trump. Farage said:
I’d have gone in and said, ‘Right, you know what, mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American military base in the world, which it is.
Outside mainland America, Diego is the most important thing America has for nuclear subs, for long-range bombers, for all of it.
Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating.
There is no pride in our country in the way he talks about us. This is careless, loose talk from a man who wants to be responsible for Britain’s national security.
This is totally dishonest journalism. I make it clear that I am opposed to the surrender of sovereignty to Mauritius. I would offer the use of Diego Garcia to the USA in perpetuity. In return I would want America to go quiet on the Falklands.
No one has fought harder to save the Chagos Islands from being given away than I have, unlike the Tories and Labour trying to give them away. I have even helped repopulate the islands with Chagossians.
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