THE UK government has denied claims made by the prime minister of Mauritius that it faces paying billions more under a renegotiated deal over the future of the Chagos Islands.
Last October, the UK announced it would hand over sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius but would maintain a 99-year lease over the UK-US military airbase on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
However, shortly after the deal was struck, Mauritius elected a new prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who wanted to reopen negotiations. He told his MPs on Tuesday new conditions had been negotiated meaning the UK’s lease payments would be linked to inflation and frontloaded.
But the UK Foreign Office said the figures being quoted were “inaccurate and misleading”.
“The UK will only sign a deal that is in our national interest,” a spokesperson said.
The Times suggested that the payments by the UK government to Mauritius could effectively double from £9bn to £18bn, but this been denied by the UK Foreign Office.
However some senior figures in government are opposed to the deal, describing it as “terrible”, “mad” and “impossible to understand”.
“At a time when there is no money, how can we spend billions of pounds to give something away?”, one senior government source said.
Progress on the deal had been paused while the UK consulted new US President Donald Trump over the proposed agreement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously raised concerns, saying the deal posed a threat to US security, given China’s influence in the region. Mauritius has an economic relationship with China.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the UK government was “still waiting” for the view of the Trump administration.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Trump’s view would “inform the negotiations”, which began under the previous Tory government.
