The UK is reviewing its deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after US President 
Donald Trump called the agreement "terrible" at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who told BBC Breakfast that Trump's position on the deal "as currently drafted is not changing", said the review was needed "because the United States doesn't support it". No money would be handed to Mauritius "at this stage" while officials review it, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
What would the deal have done? Under terms agreed in May 2025, Britain would hand sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius and lease back the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, its largest island, for 99 years, the BBC reported. The UK would pay an average of £101m ($136m) a year for the lease, with official figures giving the total as £3.4bn. Opponents of Sir Keir Starmer, who agreed the deal as prime minister, said the real cost could reach about £35bn adjusting for inflation and risked allowing China a presence on the archipelago. The deal was paused indefinitely in April because Trump pulled his support, before the final draft of the sovereignty bill had passed Parliament.
Why is the UK reviewing it? Streeting said more work was needed "with our American allies, with President Trump and his administration, to get the deal to a place where he can support it." He said the focus would be long-term certainty for the Diego Garcia base, which he described as "one of the most sensitive and valuable national security assets", and that work was under way on a deal "that maybe not everyone loves, but everyone can live with".
What was said in New York? At his first face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the assembly, Trump criticised the "terrible deal" and said the UK was "going to be looking" at it. Burnham said safeguarding the base mattered to the UK for security reasons "but also clearly to the United States as well", and that "we'll work hard" to find a resolution between the different sides. Trump has previously branded the agreement "a blight on our great ally" and an "act of total weakness".
How have other party leaders reacted? Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on Burnham to "just scrap this terrible deal", while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "The Chagos deal is dead. Thank God."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
