Starmers £34.7bn Chagos betrayal laid bare
Yes here he goes again, Starmer told us the Chagos sellout was £3.4bn but after a Freedom of Information request we now find out it's over 10 times that, and our allies are livid.
The UK’s recent deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while securing a 99-year lease on the crucial UK/US military base on Diego Garcia, has quickly spiralled into a massive political and financial controversy.
The political fallout with the US
The US is not happy at all. Following a comprehensive interagency review, the administration said they were ‘inclined’ to go along with the agreement, ie had no choice, viewing it as securing the critical military asset but behind the scenes they are absolutely livid.
Senator John Kennedy raged ‘This is insane. This is cell-deep stupid. This is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid... China has a close relationship with Mauritius. And do you know what? It is going to get a lot closer.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agreement ‘poses a serious threat to our national security interests in the Indian Ocean and threatens critical U.S. military posture in the region’ relating to China trying to take advantage of the resulting vacuum.
Outside of the security issue, the second storm surrounds the staggering costs of the surrender deal, which opposition figures claim is nearly ten times the amount initially announced by the government.
Starmer’s lie exposed by a Freedom of Information request
When announcing the deal earlier this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer sought to reassure the public about the financial implications. Starmer said the deal to give away British sovereign territory would cost an eye watering £3.4 billion.
The Prime Minister dismissed opposition estimates of £9-18 billion as wide of the mark, and the new data suggests his statement was ironically true, the initial actuarial cost was far higher than opposition or anyone in government was willing to admit.
Ministers have been accused of another cover-up after refusing to release the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) figures despite attempts by the opposition to file Freedom of Information requests.
However, new figures surfacing from the (GAD) have completely upended that claim and proven how Starmer lied again. The total sum was initially estimated at a colossal £34.7 billion, a figure over ten times the Prime Minister’s initial announcement.
The Accounting trick controversy
The government has subsequently tried to lower the figure down from the £34.7 billion figure by applying various accounting methods. This ‘reduction’ was achieved through two main methods:
Manipulating Inflation Figures Lowering the total based on assumptions about future inflation.
Long Term Project Discount Applying an accounting method sometimes used for long-term projects to discount the final sum.
This methodology drew sharp criticism from Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Mel Stride, who questioned the government’s transparency, noting that the methodology used to lower the Chagos cost differed from the one used to inflate Labour’s figures on social housing spending. ‘We don’t think that’s being straight with the British people,’ he stated, vowing to press the government hard on the issue when Parliament returns.
Opposition blasts the ‘Chagos surrender’
The Conservative party has used the new figures to launch a powerful attack on the government’s economic competence. Kemi Badenoch blasted the deal, arguing that the Chagos cost ‘is costing the country another £35 billion,’ which, combined with their claim of a separate £50 billion ‘black hole’ in public finances, shows that ‘when Labour negotiates, Britain loses.’
The political pressure is set to intensify. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel is reportedly planning to demand a correction and an apology from Sir Keir Starmer himself when MPs return, citing the government’s alleged “cover-up” of the financial data.
The Government’s defence
Despite the barrage of criticism, Justice Minister Alex Davies Jones has staunchly defended the government’s position, stating they ‘do not recognise that figure at all.’ despite it coming from a FOI request.
Defending the £3.4 billion figure, she justified the expense as necessary for national security. She stated that the cost ‘is less than 0.2 per cent of the defence budget, which is less than the cost of a of an aircraft carrier,’ and stressed that the deal, which has the United States on board, is necessary to maintain the military base on Diego Garcia and ‘protect our British citizens.’
The problem is Alex, we didn’t need to give it away, it was a base of national and strategic importance for both our security and that of our ally, the United States. It was not a legally binding decision in the woke courts, only a recommendation for consideration. There is a real risk of the base falling victim to Chinese and Iranian espionage due to Mauritius’s vulnerability and close ties to Beijing. China will exploit the change in sovereignty to gain an advantage in the Indo-Pacific there is no doubt about that.
It’s weak, very very weak, at a time when we need to be strong and put those billions into our own defences whilst Putin’s threat is getting greater in our own backyard. I am sure that with this behaviour Putin, Jinping and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be laughing themselves silly at us and become more challenging against the west which is bad news for all of us.