Politics newest information: Starmer advised to make ‘guarantee’ over British abroad territories
Sir Keir Starmer must “immediately guarantee” that the Government will not hand over any other British overseas territories, a Reform UK MP has said.
Rupert Lowe, the party’s business spokesman, said that he had written to the Foreign Office to ask officials to confirm no such plans were in place after the Prime Minister handed the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
He wrote on X: “Starmer must immediately guarantee that Labour will not surrender any other British overseas territories.
“I have asked the Foreign Office to urgently confirm this in writing.”
Sir Keir refused to say whether he would sign away other territories.
The Chagos Islands were British-owned from 1814 but was handed away by the Government in a deal that it claimed would safeguard global security by ending a long-running dispute.
The islands include Diego Garcia, which hosts a strategically important US-UK military base.
The Prime Minister was asked to guarantee that under Labour no other British overseas territories will be signed away.
He told reporters in response: “The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us.
“We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.”
A spokesman for No10 told GB News: “Chagos does not change our policy or approach to other overseas territories.”
His remarks came just hours after Argentina pledged to gain “full sovereignty” of the Falkland Islands in the wake of the Chagos deal.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
