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Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that the UK has reopened discussions with the US over the Chagos Islands deal, after criticism from Donald Trump last week cast doubt over its future.
The UK prime minister admitted on Wednesday that London had “raised” the subject of the agreement with Washington late last week and talks had continued into this week.
He sought to stress how supportive the Trump administration had been for the agreement last year.
Last week Trump blindsided Number 10 with a post on his Truth Social platform deriding the treaty as an “act of great stupidity” and “total weakness” by Britain.
Starmer responded in the House of Commons by claiming that the US president had heaped scorn on the deal “for the express purpose of putting pressure” on the UK over the future of Greenland.
The deal between the UK and Mauritius would hand the latter sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago — officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory. Britain would lease back the island of Diego Garcia, which houses a crucial joint US-UK military base, for £3.4bn over 99 years.
Speaking aboard a flight to China, Starmer said he had “discussed Chagos with Donald Trump a number of times”, but refused to confirm if it had been on the agenda during a phone call between the leaders on Sunday.
However, he made clear that the matter “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”.
Starmer added: “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.
“And once they’d done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal, and there were announcements made.”
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and US secretary of state Marco Rubio were among senior figures who had praised the deal.
A Downing Street spokesperson also confirmed on Wednesday that London was having to try to “allay concerns” in Washington.
“We will continue to engage with the US on this important matter and the importance of the deal to secure US and UK interests and allay any concerns, as we’ve done throughout the process,” the spokesperson told reporters in Westminster.
British officials say that “we have seen nothing” from the American side so far since Trump’s outburst to suggest that the UK is under pressure to change course on the issue.
London is hopeful that the US administration will give a firmer indication of its thinking in the coming days.
The British government has argued that securing an agreement with Mauritius is the only way to assure the future of the military facility on Diego Garcia, following legal challenges that threatened the UK’s uninterrupted use of the electromagnetic spectrum, which enables military communications and intelligence gathering and is integral to the base.
Compounding the government’s difficulties over the deal, the Conservatives — who oppose it — last week successfully forced Starmer to pause the bill that paves the way to ratification from proceeding through parliament.
Tory peers amended a “wrecking amendment” to the legislation, compelling ministers to delay its return to parliament this week. The Number 10 spokesperson was unable to say when the bill would be tabled to return.