Wes Streeting: Chagos Islands deal is not good enough

Wes Streeting has said the government’s deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is not good enough unless it wins the backing of the United States.

Streeting, who sat in the cabinet that signed off on the agreement, said he stood by the decision but acknowledged that the United States had withdrawn its support for the deal. 

The defence secretary, speaking to Sky News on Wednesday morning, said: “I was a member of the cabinet that agreed the deal with the government of Mauritius, and I stand by the decision that was taken, I’m not going to try to absolve myself of it now.

“But at the same time, the principle we followed all the way through is that it needs to have the support of the Americans. So objectively, in the absence of support from the Americans, is this deal good enough? No. It needs to have the support of the Americans.”

He said talks would continue until all three governments were aligned. “We will work together to get to a point where both the governments of Mauritius and the UK, but also the Americans, can sign up to this – because Diego Garcia is extremely important to the Americans as well as to us and our collective security. 

“So the objective here is to safeguard that base and its capability, not just now, but for the long term, because it’s that important to us.”

Under the deal, first agreed during Keir Starmer’s tenure as prime minister in 2025, Britain would cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the Diego Garcia military base – jointly run with the US – under a 99-year lease. 

Since the deal was confirmed, ministers have consistently argued that the arrangement was designed to secure the base’s long-term future.

But the support of the United States, a crucial component of the arrangement, has proved difficult to secure. US president Donald Trump initially backed the agreement has now reversed course. 

Trump was asked about the deal during his first face-to-face meeting with Andy Burnham on Tuesday. Speaking in the margins of the UN General Assembly, Trump described the deal as “terrible” and said the UK was “going to be looking” at it.

Streeting has now confirmed that the UK government will review the deal. 

He told BBC Breakfast: “What President Trump said yesterday wasn’t new but I think it does provide absolute clarity that his position on this Chagos deal as currently drafted is not changing.

“So we have to do more work with our American allies, with President Trump and his administration, to get the deal to a place where he can support it.”

The comments come after Labour MP Dan Carden told Politics.co.uk that the Chagos deal was “disastrous”. 

He said: “I’m still amazed that so few Labour MPs have had anything to say about it. I just say to any of them, go meet one of your constituents, try and explain the Chagos deal to them, and see how it goes down.

“For me, that’s what politics is – to see whether people understand what you’re doing and why you’re there.”

Carden, the former chair of the influential Blue Labour group, added: “We need to look at how we actually give the territories a stake in parliament and a stake in government. 

“So I hope Andy is capable of doing that, and I have some hope that he will look at the disastrous Chagos deal and drop it, and look to do something different – because he’s got the ability and the capacity to do that.”