Tories say deal should be fully scrapped after it was criticised by Donald Trump during his meeting with Andy Burnham
Chagos Islands deal ‘can’t go ahead’ without US support, Streeting says
The Conservatives have urged Andy Burnham to fully drop the proposed Chagos Islands deal – giving sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in return for guaranteed control for the Diego Garcia military base for at least another 99 years – in the light of Donald Trump calling the deal “terrible” yesterday.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said in a statement:
It shouldn’t have taken another intervention from the president for Andy Burnham to ‘review’ Labour’s Chagos Surrender deal.
If Burnham was really serious about our defence he would know that this deal should be binned entirely. It is absurd to hand over British sovereign territory, not to mention billions of pounds of hard-pressed taxpayers’ money, to an ally of China.
This deal, as it is currently constituted, can’t go ahead without American support. We have to get a deal to a place where it commands American support, as well as the agreement of the government of Mauritius and our government.
Right now, Britain’s information supply is being written in Moscow and spread by algorithms nobody voted for. The prime minister is right to call for a national effort. This is a national security threat, and it ends in real-world harm.
Our research has found Russian propaganda poisoning the chatbots people use every day, disinformation campaigns targeting London, and social media stoking division during crisis moments from the Southport riots to recent asylum housing rows. The door is wide open to these attacks.
