Chagos deal LIVE: Fury over Keir Starmer’s ‘£30bn give up’ deal | Politics | News | EUROtoday

The Chagos Islands deal is “good value”, the armed forces minister has mentioned, rejecting claims that the Government’s estimation of the general value was deceptive.

Asked about accusations that the true value might be greater than £30 billion, armed forces minister Luke Pollard advised Sky News: “So it’s £3.4 billion over 99 years – that represents good value.

“And it’s also comparable to other allies leasing bases in the region. Djibouti… there’s a base there rented by the French, for instance, that’s 85 million euros that they spend per year there.

“But that base is literally next door to the Chinese naval base that’s leased there. Diego Garcia is 15 times bigger than that French base.”

He added that the UK had secured an “exclusion zone” across the base to guard UK and US operations.