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Keir Starmer‘s plan to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has suffered another blow as the island’s prime minister has decided to review it.
PM Navin Ramgoolam said he “would like to have more time to study all the details of the agreement with a panel of legal advisers,” the Daily Mail reports.
The Chagos Islands include the UK/US Diego Garcia military base and have been controlled by the UK for 200 years.
A deal to give the archipelago up was announced by the Labour Party last month.
Mr Ramgoolam, whose administration only came to power in November, has wasted no time in throwing doubt over the deal agreed by his predecessor Pravind Jugnauth.
During the election campaign, the now-PM criticised Mr Jugnauth for committing “high treason” by taking over sovereignty of the island group, which he reportedly described as a “sell out” decision.
The agreement includes Mauritius assuming control of the Diego Garcia base, which is expected to come under a 99-year lease, with Britain paying annual installments to the China-allied state for continued operations.
Despite this, Keir Starmer has described it as a “good deal”, suggesting that the agreement “secures the base that’s in the vital interests of the US and the UK”.
He also said the UK government was engaging with the new administration in Mauritius “as to how we take that forward”.
“There’s been a change of leadership in Mauritius and as you would expect we’ve been engaging with the new administration on the details of the deal, and those meetings have been productive,” a spokesperson for the PM told the PA News Agency.
“Letters have been exchanged between the two administrations noting our respective commitments to progressing the agreement.”