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    Government has no idea how it will pay for cost of Chagos deal | Exclusive: Written parliamentary answers suggest government could raid the under-pressure defence budget to pay bill
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    Government has no idea how it will pay for cost of Chagos deal | Exclusive: Written parliamentary answers suggest government could raid the under-pressure defence budget to pay bill


    Government has no idea how it will pay for cost of Chagos deal | Exclusive: Written parliamentary answers suggest government could raid the under-pressure defence budget to pay bill

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chagos-islands-deal-cost-uk-trump-b2689833.html

    Posted by 1DarkStarryNight

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    30 Comments

    1. 1DarkStarryNight on

      Reaction so far:

      • Farage has [slammed](https://www.kentonline.co.uk/news/national/chagos-islands-deal-could-dangerously-fracture-uk-and-us-relationship-farage-138522/) Starmer’s Chagos ‘surrender’ | Reform leader said pushing through deal could ‘dangerously’ fracture UK/US relationship

      • Tories are ‘outraged’ by final Chagos deal, [saying](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/feb/04/latest-live-uk-politics-news-labour-reform-tory-conservatives-keir-starmer) it’s madness | Chief right-winger Priti Patel said Starmer’s decision motivated by ‘lefty shame’

      • Badenoch [accused](https://www.shropshirestar.com/uk-news/2025/02/04/keir-starmer-accused-of-bending-the-knee-to-mauritius-with-revised-chagos-deal/) Starmer of ‘bending the knee’ to Mauritius.

    2. LonelyStranger8467 on

      The actual joke of a situation where we are hoping Trump of all people save us from this lunacy

    3. Thetonn on

      How about we do a deal with Keir.

      If Keir successfully managed to deliver all the growth that he has promised, get control over migration, sort out all the problems with the migrants in the hotels, and reach his housing target, then he gets to spend £18bn giving away islands as a little treat for himself.

      Until then, we hire some GP receptionists to act as stakeholder engagement managers for Mauritius.

    4. oryx_za on

      Can someone please explain this to me.

      I understand there is an “obligation” to give this island. Why on earth do we need to lease it? Surely the near presence of the base creates economic activity in the region?

      If it’s because the Americans need it…let them pay for it?

      Why is trump being so coy about this? This shots right up his alley

      There is more to this story but I don’t see it.

    5. Mountain_Bag_2095 on

      This whole thing is a huge political loss for Labour at a time when a party like reform is on the rise giving away territory no matter how well intentioned is just ridiculous. If the cost of this is at least 5 years under reform will Labour and Starmer be happy with that?

    6. backagainlool on

      Sorry

      But why are we giving a country both land and money

      In fact why do we need that base anymore anyway

      Fuck off the nazis and give the Islands away free of change

      I’m sure the Indians would love them

    7. Dawnbringer_Fortune on

      I don’t understand why this large payment? There’s a £22bn blackhole yet Starmer is willing to give £9bn-18bn a year to Mauritius

      Edit: 9bn over 99 years not per year

    8. mgator on

      Easy – you don’t. They tell em to pound sand and take it if you want. Not fair but that seems the logical outcome.

    9. PurahsHero on

      To put this in context, our payment of £18bn is more than Mauritius’ annual GDP (around £16bn).

    10. nomadshire on

      How else are we going to protect cargo vessels ? Without a naval base around the southern horn of Africa?

    11. almost_always_wrong_ on

      Something is missing here. Nothing adds up. It’s like Diane Abbott was doing the maths for this

    13. saxbophone on

      We will have to magic the cash up somehow —our theft of this land was a historic wrong and a stain on our reputation —according to the deal we brokered, we get to keep the base _and_ our reputation,  a win-win! I am concerned about the defence budget, but we also need to set our sights much more ambitiously high in that area: to 5%!

    14. Jay_6125 on

      This will be one of the BIGGEST foreign policy disasters in modern times by a UK government.

      Literally everyone is against it. Starmer and his TWO old lawyer pals are the ones insanely pushing this cretinous decision at huge public expense and to the Fury of our greatest ally the USA. I truly hope Trump goes full throttle on Starmers government if they go through with this.

    15. myfirstreddit8u519 on

      This is the kind of deal you make in civ when you’ve just been skullfucked in a war and need a few turns to regroup.

      What the fuck is wrong with these people?

    16. LSL3587 on

      *A senior Treasury minister has admitted that the government does not yet know how it will pay for its controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back the UK/US air base on Diego Garcia.*

      *In a written answer, chief Treasury secretary Darren Jones, Rachel Reeves’ number two, revealed that spending has not yet been allocated for what sources have claimed could be a £9 billion bill.* [other sources claim more like £18Bn]

      *Responding to Tory shadow defence minister Mark Francois on where the costs of the talks and deal would be met, Mr Jones said: “The direct costs of negotiation are owned and monitored by the Foreign Office (FCDO) and Ministry of Defence (MoD), and have all been met from within their budgets. Policy impact assessments are similarly owned by the FCDO and MoD.”*

      *But crucially he made it clear that costs of the paying for the deal had not been allocated yet and will need to come from within the government’s future budget and spending limits.*

      So the Labour government thought they had a deal costing £9bn, now it looks more like £18bn with a weighting to up-front payments. But the government haven’t budgeted for this yet. Isn’t that one of those terrible ‘black-holes’ that Reeves claimed to find when she took office? Reeves claimed there were commitments made by the Tory government that hadn’t been budgeted for – but Labour is doing the exact same thing. Labour government refusing to tell Parliament the costs of the deal. Darren Jones (No.2 in Treasury) saying it will be budgeted for in due course.

      Surely the OBR need to have an estimated cost to put into their forecasts to be published in March with the Spring Statement on 26 March? Otherwise Labour would be doing what they accused the Tories of doing – leaving out the costs of commitments?

    18. Jake257 on

      What was Starmer saying about corruption before he got in? Not only is he a sellout but also evil for going and attacking the sick and disabled even more than the Tories did in 14 years!

    19. FranksBestToeKnife on

      Nonsensical deal. I’m very much hoping that either this reporting is wrong, or else somebody with a lick of sense steps in and stops Kier from this obvious pisstake.

    20. nazrinz3 on

      so they complain about the tory black hole and then decide to double it within 6 months of taking office, bravo

    24. D0wnInAlbion on

      You thought that Liz Truss was the bottom of the barrel and someone Labour have managed to dig deeper. Their members are to blame. They knew what they were electing even though they pretended he was a secret socialist with the interests of Britain at heart.

    25. FizzyLogic on

      There’s no way Starmer isn’t a Chinese asset. The Chinese super embassy, curtailing laws against Chinese spies. What the hell can we do about this?!

    26. Astriania on

      There’s still time to just tell Mauritius to get fucked and pay them nothing and keep the islands

    27. TeaBoy24 on

      They should just sell the islands and use the profit to boost infrastructure and reform projects.

    28. SpaceTimeRacoon on

      Just give the island to Canada and call it a day

      We should absolutely not be giving land AND money for an island that we got from the french, that they took from nobody.