The government's controversial plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has suffered a significant parliamentary setback after peers in the House of Lords voted to amend the legislation.
Peers demand financial safeguards for Diego Garcia base
On Monday evening, the upper chamber backed an amendment designed to force a renegotiation of the treaty's financial terms. The change, spearheaded by former military chiefs, passed by 132 votes to 124. It mandates that the government must arrange for annual payments to Mauritius to cease if the strategic military base on Diego Garcia becomes permanently unusable for defence purposes.
The amendment explicitly states that the government must make provisions "should environmental or other issues make the military use of the Base permanently impossible". This move directly challenges the core financial arrangement of the deal, under which the UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million annually for a 99-year leaseback of the site. In cash terms, this represents a total commitment of at least £13 billion.
Former military chief warns of geopolitical 'nightmare'
Leading the charge, crossbencher Lord Houghton of Richmond, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, argued the bill in its current form was dangerously flawed. "Currently, the Bill makes no provision for the circumstances under which the requirement to pay an annual fee... is revisited in the event of the base becoming unusable for military purposes," he stated.
In a pointed warning, Lord Houghton referenced recent global instability, asking if the last 72 hours gave "serious cause for concern regarding our ability to predict with certainty the next two years of geopolitics, let alone the next 100". He concluded, "This treaty needs to cater far better for what the future might hold."
Echoing these concerns, Conservative shadow foreign minister Lord Callanan branded it "unconscionable that British taxpayers should be forced to continue to fund the Mauritian government" if the base became inoperable.
Further defeats and the Chagossian question
The government faced additional rebellions in the Lords. Peers also backed:
- A Liberal Democrat measure requiring a referendum among the Chagossian community on whether the deal adequately guarantees their rights to resettlement and consultation.
- A Tory demand for a detailed costing of all payments to Mauritius, including the full methodology.
- Another Lib Dem amendment ensuring parliamentary oversight of spending linked to the treaty, allowing MPs to halt payments if Mauritius breaches the terms.
The issue of Chagossian rights remains highly sensitive. Up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly removed from their homes between the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the base, with many now living in the UK and continuing to campaign for a right to return.
In response to the criticism, Foreign Minister Baroness Chapman of Darlington defended the treaty, stating it included mechanisms to deal with developments and was covered by international law. She assured peers the government was "taking steps that are necessary to prevent the base becoming unusable".
While the bill has already been approved by the House of Commons, these Lords amendments will likely be overturned when it returns to the lower house. However, the process will cause a notable delay in the formal ratification of an agreement finalised in May 2024, following a 2019 World Court advisory opinion urging the UK to return the islands.
