Peers want to force Chagos Islands referendum to stop handover deal

A group of Lords wants to force a referendum over the handover of the Chagos Islands, in a move that could delay the treaty from taking effect until after Donald Trump takes office.

Lord Bellingham is leading a group of peers who plan to introduce an amendment to the treaty when it reaches the House of Lords to require a vote of Chagossians to approve it.

US President Joe Biden’s administration agreed the deal with Sir Keir Starmer’s government but Trump’s team is reportedly opposed to it and could look for a way to scrap it.

“The government has promised there was going to be consultation of the Chagossians, but that is not happening,” Lord Bellingham, who was minister for overseas territories under former prime minister David Cameron, told the PA news agency.

He said he had seen a “huge amount of anger” among the Chagossian community in the UK.

“I think the whole thing is deeply concerning, and I think the government has a lot of explaining to do, and opinion in the Lords is beginning to harden.

“I think that the Conservatives are absolutely 100 per cent determined to stop this and I think a lot of crossbenchers and a lot of non-affiliated peers are the same.”

Chagos referendum?

Lord Bellingham said the government has shown “absolutely no sign” of how they plan to consult Chagossians.

He said: “And the only way to consult them is actually to have a referendum, because they’re spread out in different places, and they’ve made no effort really.”

Some 3,500 Chagossians are thought to live in the UK. Holding a referendum would require the government to hold an international advertising campaign to make sure as many Chagossians as possible are aware of the vote.

The timeline for the treaty to go through Parliament is not yet clear, but the government has said it will be put before the House for scrutiny after it is signed, which was planned for after the Mauritian elections.

Veteran Mauritian politician Navin Ramgoolam was sworn in as prime minister this week after a decade out of power.

“There’s a new government in Mauritius that doesn’t like this treaty anyway, and they need to be told in no uncertain terms that this is going to be paused, and the government are not going to put it through Parliament.

“If they do try and put it through Parliament then what we’ll do is we will use parliamentary procedure to add a provision to the treaty to allow for a referendum,” Lord Bellingham said.

Diego Garcia

The UK government announced its decision to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius last month, which it said “saved” the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, one of the cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The deal over the continued military presence on Diego Garcia is expected to run for 99 years with an option to renew, with Britain paying a regular annual sum of money.

The UK entered negotiations under the previous Tory government with Mauritius over the future of the Chagos Islands after international pressure.

The United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, had ruled the UK’s administration of the territory was “unlawful” and must end after two centuries of British control.

The Chagos Islands have been in British hands for more than 200 years, but after Mauritius gained independence from France in the late 1960s, the inhabitants of the islands were forcibly expelled to make way for the base.

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.

Press Association – Helen Corbett