Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's costly Chagos deal has been branded "obscene" after confirming the agreement with Mauritius.
In an announcement on Thursday, the Labour leader confirmed Britain's newly signed deal on the future of the Diego Garcia base, dubbed a "surrender deal" by critics across the political spectrum.
Defending the deal, Starmer claimed the extortionate cost was "part and parcel of Britain's global reach".
Starmer claimed: "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."
Claire Pearsall criticised the staggering price tag of Keir Starmer's Chagos deal
GB News / PA
Discussing the deal on GB News, commentator Claire Pearsall questioned "where the money is coming from", citing Labour's frequent claims of a "£22billion black hole" in Britain's finances.
Pearsall said: "Mauritius has never had a claim on the Chagos Islands, so to think that it's somehow rightfully theirs is for the birds.
"The amount of money that is going to be handed over to Mauritius is actually obscene. When you start digging down into the figures, it's £45million a year for 25 years to support projects for economic development in Mauritius."
Hitting out at the Labour Government, Pearsall added: "So we can freeze our own pensioners, but we can pay for the Mauritian economy to be bumped up?"
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
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 basePAQuestioning the source of the funding for the Chagos deal, Pearsall highlighted Chancellor Rachel Reeves's claims of a "black hole" in the UK economy.
She told GB News: "Where is the money coming from? All we keep hearing from the Chancellor is that there's some enormous £22bn black hole?"
Defending the deal, GB News Senior Political Commentator Nigel Nelson said it is "for the courts" to decide who owns the Chagos Islands, but the agreement is the "only way" for Britain to retain the Diego Garcia military base.
Nelson explained: "It is for the courts to decide who actually should own it. This is a deal to keep the Diego Garcia as a military base, we're leasing their main military base.
Pearsall questioned where the money for the deal is coming from
GB News
"The figures seem to be all over the place, in fairness, but at the moment the figure is not so much important, it's the principle."
He added: "If we want to retain that military base, this is the way to do it. We are renting it. It is like renting a house or something like that. So on the basis of that, we've got to pay some money out."
Discussing the costs involved in the deal, Starmer told reporters in his announcement on Thursday that the agreement is "good value for money".
The Prime Minister said: "The average of £100m per year is about the same, or slightly less than, the running cost of an aircraft carrier, minus the aircraft.
"Now, given the significance of this facility, both the geography and the capability, you can see that as, again, measured against an aircraft carrier running costs, that this is very good value for money."
