Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's "disgraceful" Chagos deal after finally signing the multi-billion pound agreement.
In an announcement on Thursday, the Labour leader confirmed Britain's newly signed deal with Mauritius on the future of the Diego Garcia base, claiming the staggering cost was "part and parcel of Britain's global reach".
Defending the deal, Starmer told the nation: "If we did not agree this deal, the legal situation would mean that we would not be able to prevent China or any other nation setting up their own bases on the outer islands, or carrying out joint exercises near our base."
Speaking to GB News, Shapps hit out at the agreement and declared the multi-billion pound agreement a "weak-willed" approach by the Prime Minister.
Grant Shapps has hit out at Keir Starmer's Chagos deal
GB News / PA
Shapps fumed: "I cannot keep quiet today whilst I hear the Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and other ministers going out and claiming there was some inevitability that we absolutely had to hand this sovereignty away, pay for the pleasure of doing so, and we discover in the small print, ask permission from the Mauritians 2000 kilometres away whenever we take any military action from there.
"It's an outrageous claim by ministers, it's not true."
Criticising the Labour Government, Shapps added: "I've been privy to all of the top secret information on this. I can't go into the details, but I can tell you that this is just a weak willed approach, claiming that they had no choice when they absolutely had a choice to defend our sovereignty.
"This is a disgraceful outcome."
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Speaking at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister confirmed that the UK had agreed a deal with Mauritius on the future of the Diego Garcia basePADiscussing the decision by the court, Shapps claimed that Starmer is "too prepared" to follow the lawyers on legal advice, "no matter what they are recommending".
Shapps explained: "I'm afraid the Prime Minister, a human rights lawyer, is just too prepared to follow whatever the lawyers happen to be recommending as advice.
"In the same way as when you're a minister, you listen to lawyers and you listen to solicitors, but you come to your own decisions when advisors advise, you don't simply cave in to whatever they say."
In a scathing criticism of Starmer's intentions with the deal, Shapps questioned whether the Labour Government are showing their "unpatriotism" towards Britain in "giving away sovereignty" to Mauritius.
Shapps told GB News that Labour's deal is 'unpatriotic'
GB News
He stated: "Why on earth we feel that we have to hand away our sovereignty, pay for the privilege and it turns out, ask for permission when we use our own facilities to an island, to Mauritius who have never, ever owned this is beyond belief.
"I can't quite decide whether it is the Government being unpatriotic, not understanding the extent to which it's important that we look after our national security, or if they're just completely ignorant of the damage, which is in some ways just bad or worse."
Shapps concluded: "I hope it's the latter because if it's the former, then they're genuinely acting on behalf of those who seek to harm us.
"This Government has caved in to a bunch of lawyers, very much of the type that Keir Starmer might listen to, including, outrageously, somebody who's not declared their interests but has written extensively about abandoning Britain's role in the world."
