Sir Keir Starmer has suffered a new blow in his bid to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The Prime Minister was defied by peers over the agreement that will see the archipelago transferred to Mauritius in a deal experts warn could cost taxpayers £35 billion.
As part of the agreement, the UK will rent back Diego Garcia, the island that is home to a British and American military base.
This part of the agreement is expected to cost more than £30 billion in cash terms over the next 99 years.
On Monday, peers voted narrowly in favour of renegotiating the treaty to ensure that Britain would stop making payments if “use of the base for military purposes became impossible.”
The proposal, which is likely to be reversed by Labour MPs, would mean reopening talks with the Mauritius government so the UK would not have to pay to rent back the base if “environmental or other issues” render it unusable.
While Sir Keir’s MPs are likely to defy the ruling of peers, the vote will delay the deal’s formal agreement.
The islanders established a government to coordinate their efforts to prevent the Prime Minister from ceding the territory.
The deal signed in May saw Sir Keir hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius | GETTYFamilies who had been displaced from the archipelago between 1967 and 1973 chose Misley Mandarin to lead the campaign to keep the islands under British rule.
The British Government has been warned that handing over the Chagos Islands would risk the loss of one of the world’s most important and unspoilt natural environments.
The islands are home to almost 800 species of fish, at least 300 types of coral, 280 species of plants and ferns, and 50 species of birds.
While the Mauritian government says it is “committed to preserving the terrestrial and marine environment” of the archipelago, peers have raised concerns that Britain would have no legal recourse if those pledges were not upheld.
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Lord Faulks KC, the former justice minister, has tabled amendments to ensure that no agreement with Mauritius is ratified until robust environmental assurances are secured.
The House of Lords voted on Tuesday night to back the controversial amendment, dealing the Prime Minister another setback in his efforts to push the deal through.
Sir Keir insists the deal is the only way to adequately protect the Diego Garcia base from the influence of other countries like China.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, told The Telegraph: “Labour’s crazy Chagos deal is a triple whammy of harm – terrible for UK taxpayers, bad for national security, and damaging to the environment.
The Prime Minister insists handing over the islands is in Britain's best interests
| Reuters/GETTY“Now the Government have just lost a crucial vote in the House of Lords. This very sensible amendment from a former chief of the defence staff received cross party support and would prevent the UK from continuing payments to Mauritius in circumstances where the military base were to be inoperable.
“Now Starmer should perform yet another U-turn and scrap the bill entirely.”