Labour slammed as ‘strategically illiterate’ for giving up Chagos Islands | Politics | News | EUROtoday

An ex-Royal Navy officer has slammed Labour’s determination to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands as “strategically illiterate”.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry took purpose on the Government over the transfer whereas talking to Reform UK’s Nigel Farage.

Mr Parry mentioned: “It’s strategically illiterate. When the announcement got here out, I used to be completely flabbergasted to inform you the reality.

“I think it is probably caused more by a Government that wants to display its decolonisation and ideological credentials than any strategic sense.”

Speaking to Mr Farage on his GB News present, the ex-Admiral added: “It won’t be long before you see Chinese fishing vessels and other predatory industries going in there.

“It’s an amazing surrender of British Overseas Island Territory and it’s given encouragement to other chancers like the people in Argentina and the Spanish with Gibraltar. It was a terrible message to send out that we are prepared to give up sovereign territory.”

Mr Farage has claimed there may be “outright hostility” within the US to the UK’s cope with Mauritius to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.

The Reform UK chief, who has been a long-time backer of President-elect Donald Trump and visited the US on his re-election, mentioned incoming nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and defence secretary Pete Hegseth have been each against the deal.

The Government introduced its determination to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius final month, which they’ve argued “saved” a UK-US navy base on Diego Garcia.

The settlement over the continued navy presence on Diego Garcia is anticipated to run for 99 years with an choice to renew, with Britain paying a daily annual sum of cash.

Mr Farage warned the Government towards being “at conflict” with the US, with out whom the UK would “be defenceless”.

During an pressing query on the Chagos Islands deal, the Reform UK chief informed the Commons: “I warned the Foreign Secretary six weeks ago in this chamber that it was an enormous mistake to do this, given that we had a US presidential election coming up on November 5.

“And if you say to me, ‘well, yes, it’s okay, the United States are fully in favour’ – really?

“I can tell you that the incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz has form on this, right back to when (former foreign secretary James Cleverly) was doing his best to give away the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. Indeed, he wrote to Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken at the time.

“There is, I can assure you, having been in America last week, knowing also the incoming defence secretary (Pete Hegseth) very well, there is outright hostility to this deal.”

He added: “Whatever is said about a lease agreement, as we saw with Hong Kong, these agreements can very, very easily be broken.

“Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned.”

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty earlier mentioned: “The base on Diego Garcia plays a critical role in countering an array of threats to regional and international security.

“Without legal certainty, the base simply cannot operate effectively; continued uncertainty would be a gift to our adversaries. This is why the agreement has been welcomed by all parts of the US system and by other critical regional security partners including India.”

The Chagos Islands have been in British arms for greater than 200 years, however after Mauritius gained independence from France within the late Nineteen Sixties, the inhabitants of the islands have been forcibly expelled to make method for the bottom.