Britain will sign the Chagos deal with Mauritius this week, government sources have told GB News.
Under the upcoming agreement, Mauritius will gain sovereignty of the islands from Britain, but the UK-US military base will remain on Diego Garcia on a 99-year lease, which will be paid for by the British taxpayer.
The cost of the deal has yet to be confirmed, but reports suggest it could start at £90million a year.
Government sources tonight told GB News that they were confident that the deal with Mauritius would be signed virtually on Thursday.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the deal as vital for maintaining the security of the joint military base
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The anticipated signing comes amid reports that it had been delayed due to fears of a backlash over the cost of the deal amid proposed welfare cuts from the budget.
A Downing Street source told the Times over the weekend: “I don’t think we’ll be hearing about Chagos for a while. They want to take the sting out of it.”
But fresh reports suggest that, with President Donald Trump’s blessing last month, No10 will push ahead with the deal.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We are working to sign a deal which will safeguard the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia, which is vital to our national security.”
Sources in the Foreign Office tonight said that the deal is progressing.
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Navin Ramgoolam is the Prime Minister of Mauritius
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It is a longstanding position that the FCDO will not comment on timeframes for the deal.
The Conservatives have criticised the deal, despite the previous government opening the negotiations when Liz Truss was prime minister.
Tonight the Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said that the upcoming agreement was “yet another surrender from this weak and feeble Labour government that betrays our national interest.”
"Not content with bending the knee to Brussels, it seems Keir Starmer now wants to further humiliate this country by handing over our own sovereign territory to Mauritius, and then asking the British public to pay billions for the indignity of it.
"Whenever Labour negotiates, Britain loses. Labour should scrap this dodgy deal before it is too late."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the deal as vital for maintaining the security of the joint military base.
The anticipated signing comes amid reports that it had been delayed due to fears of a backlash over the cost of the deal amid proposed welfare cuts from the budget
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On Friday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We've previously said that work continues on finalising a deal that will protect the US/UK base and our national security and intelligence gathering capabilities in the region.
“Our role in hosting this military base, and the capability this provides the UK and US, is central to the UK/US intelligence and security relationship.
“That work to protect our capabilities in the region continues.”
Lord Kempsell said: "Keir Starmer must not sign this deal. If he does he will be responsible for damaging the national security of the United Kingdom, and he will have done nothing to resolve the entirely legitimate grievances of the Chagossians, whom the government has excluded from this process.
"Why is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom volunteering to effectively lose control of one of our most important overseas bases, then force us to pay billions forever for the privilege of using it? Starmer is shrinking the UK's global influence at a time we need to expand it."
