Minister ‘misspoke’ by telling MPs UK was ‘pausing for discussions with our American counterparts’, officials say
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Plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius are still on track, the UK government has insisted, after a minister caused confusion by telling MPs that the deal was “paused”.
Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister and former diplomat, was speaking on Wednesday as the deal came under increasing pressure from opposition parties in the UK and from Donald Trump.
In a bombshell intervention, the US president said Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for the UK and US being allowed to continue using their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
