US president had recently said that the plan was the best deal Starmer could make
Donald Trump has urged Keir Starmer not to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius, warning he was “making a big mistake”.
Under the deal agreed last year, Britain would cede control over the British Indian Ocean Territory but lease the largest island, Diego Garcia, for 99 years to continue operating a joint US-UK military base there.
Earlier this month, Trump said the plan to hand the Chagos Islands back was the “best” deal Starmer could make, watering down his previous criticism. On Tuesday, the state department gave its official backing to the deal.
However, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the US president wrote: “Our relationship with the United Kingdom is a strong and powerful one, and it has been for many years, but prime minister Starmer is losing control of this important island by claims of entities never known of before. In our opinion, they are fictitious in nature.”
