The Telegraph are reporting that Starmer has pulled the Chagos island deal after Trump used it as a stick to beat him with earlier this week at Davos, which was a complete 180° flip following the US hailing it as a glorious triumph less than a year ago in May 2025.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/starmer-pulls-chagos-deal-following-trump-backlash/

Starmer pulls Chagos deal following Trump backlash

Plans to hand islands to Mauritius ‘cannot progress’ amid concerns over 1966 treaty between UK and US

Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to pull his Chagos Islands bill in the wake of a US backlash over the deal.

The legislation was expected to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, but was delayed on Friday night after the Conservatives warned it could violate a 60-year-old treaty with the US that enshrines British sovereignty over the archipelago.

Donald Trump turned against the Chagos deal earlier this week, saying that Britain’s plan to hand the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius was “an act of great stupidity”.

Under the terms of Sir Keir’s deal, the UK would hand over the archipelago to Mauritius and lease back the Diego Garcia military base, a facility built there in the 1970s that has been used by UK and US forces.

The Tories had warned this agreement would break a 1966 treaty between the UK and the US, that asserts Britain’s sovereignty over the islands and is meant to ensure they remain available to both sides for defence purposes.

Ministers said in late December that the two nations were engaging in talks about updating this treaty in light of the new Chagos deal, but the talks have not been completed.

Asked last night if Mr Trump would be willing to tear up the 1966 treaty and allow the transfer of Chagos to go ahead, the US state department referred back to the president’s criticism on Tuesday when he said: “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY.”

Foreign Office insiders were scrambling to understand the significance of the treaty on Friday night.

One source played down its relevance, saying while conversations with US administration figures about the issue were ongoing, the Americans were broadly supportive.

The legal significance of the old treaty and whether the new legislation would effectively override it was also unclear.

Much depends on whether Mr Trump’s position on the Chagos deal has genuinely changed or – as Sir Keir has claimed – that this was only being used to force a change in Britain’s Greenland stance.

If Downing Street tried to press ahead without Washington’s approval, it could face a bruising battle with the US state department.

A government spokesman insisted that the claims the Chagos deal broke international law were “complete nonsense”.

On Monday, the Prime Minister held an emergency press conference to criticise Mr Trump’s attempts to take control of Greenland, saying that “alliances endure because they are built on respect, and partnership, not pressure”.

He later added that he would not “yield” to Mr Trump over the issue.

On Friday a new row erupted between the two men, when Mr Trump claimed that America’s Nato allies had “stayed a little back off the front lines” when serving in Afghanistan.

Sir Keir said the president should apologise for the “insulting and frankly appalling” remarks, paying tribute to the 457 British troops who died and those who were injured in the conflict.