In a heated exchange during Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused Conservative frontbencher Kemi Badenoch of putting “naked opportunism over national interest” by siding with former US President Donald Trump on the UK’s agreement to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Starmer claimed that Trump’s stance on the issue was driven by his desire to defend his position on Greenland, and that the American president was attempting to pressure the UK into changing its stance. However, the Prime Minister firmly stated that the UK would not yield to Trump’s demands.
The dispute centres around a long-standing territorial dispute over the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean that the UK has controlled since the 1960s. In 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK’s continued occupation of the islands was illegal, and that they should be returned to Mauritius.
The UK government has since reached an agreement with Mauritius to hand over control of the islands, a move that has been criticised by some as a betrayal of the Chagos Islanders, who were forcibly evicted from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for a US military base.
Badenoch, the Conservative Party’s former leadership candidate and current Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has reportedly sided with Trump’s opposition to the deal, arguing that it undermines the UK’s strategic interests in the region.
Starmer, however, has accused Badenoch of putting her own political ambitions ahead of the national interest, suggesting that her stance is motivated by a desire to curry favour with the right-wing of the Conservative Party.
The Prime Minister, who has not been named in the original article, has sought to distance the government from Badenoch’s position, reaffirming the UK’s commitment to the agreement with Mauritius and its obligations under international law.
The dispute over the Chagos Islands has been a longstanding source of tension between the UK and Mauritius, and the latest political clash is likely to further inflame the situation. As the UK prepares to hand over control of the islands, the debate over the country’s colonial legacy and its implications for its global standing is likely to continue.
