Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has asserted that US President Donald Trump originally endorsed his Chagos Islands handover agreement "in very clear terms" after American intelligence agencies conducted a thorough review. This claim comes despite Mr Trump's recent sharp criticism of the arrangement, which he labelled an "act of great stupidity" last week.
Initial Support and Subsequent Criticism
The Prime Minister emphasised that the Trump administration "concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support" after it underwent detailed examination "at an agency level" during the initial months following their entry into the White House. Sir Keir highlighted public statements of support from President Trump and his senior officials, who previously praised the agreement as a "monumental achievement" that secured the long-term future of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
Geopolitical Context and Recent Tensions
Mr Trump's criticism emerged amidst heightened transatlantic tensions concerning his ambitions to assume control of Greenland. Sir Keir accused the US President of making these remarks with the "express purpose of putting pressure" on the United Kingdom to withdraw its objections to his demands regarding the Arctic island. The Prime Minister declined to confirm whether the Chagos issue was discussed during their weekend telephone conversation, as the official readout made no mention of the topic.
When questioned by reporters accompanying him to China about whether they addressed the deal on Saturday, Sir Keir responded: "I've obviously discussed Chagos with Donald Trump a number of times. It has been raised with the White House at the tail end of last week, over the weekend and into the early part of this week."
The US Review Process
The Prime Minister elaborated on the review process, stating: "The position, as you know, is that when the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level. Once they'd done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal."
Sir Keir referenced supportive statements from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, who declared in May 2025 that the arrangement secures "key US national security interests in the region", and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who noted in the same month that President Trump had "expressed his support for this monumental achievement during his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer at the White House".
Parliamentary Scrutiny and Political Debate
The Government has postponed a scheduled House of Lords debate on the Chagos Islands, highlighting ongoing uncertainty about the archipelago's future. The legislation intended to formalise the agreement is currently in the advanced parliamentary stage known as "ping pong", where bills move between the Commons and Lords until consensus is achieved.
Conservative Opposition and Labour Response
This delay followed Conservative peers tabling an amendment requesting a pause "in the light of the changing geopolitical circumstances". The amendment urged the Government to verify that the agreement does not violate a 1966 treaty with the United States that affirms British sovereignty over the islands.
Labour attributed the postponement to Tory peers' "wrecking amendment" and maintained that President Trump's comments had no influence on the decision. A Downing Street spokesperson denied indefinite delay, stating the next Lords debate date would be "announced in the usual way".
In the Commons, Tory shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel declared: "Labour's £35 billion Chagos surrender deal is falling apart every single day and it's high time that the Prime Minister tore up this atrocious surrender treaty and put Britain's interests and our defence first and our security first and Britain's hard-pressed taxpayers first."
Labour's foreign minister Seema Malhotra countered that Conservative criticisms represented "political point-scoring at the expense of our national security", reminding MPs that the Conservative Party had initiated negotiations with Mauritius concerning the Chagos Islands.
Deal Details and Strategic Implications
Under the agreement, the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean will be transferred to Mauritius. However, Britain will lease back the Diego Garcia military base, jointly operated with the United States, for a minimum of 99 years while making payments to Mauritius. According to reports, the US State Department, National Security Agency, and CIA all examined the draft agreement through what was described as "the most rigorous inter-agency approval process imaginable", raising no objections provided US access to Diego Garcia remained uninterrupted.
The Prime Minister refused to speculate on whether President Trump fully comprehended the deal's details, reiterating that "it was an agency review that was conducted in the US before they then concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support, did support and did so in very clear terms". Downing Street confirmed that Britain and the United States continue collaborating to ensure the Diego Garcia military base's future operational capabilities.
