Keir Starmer has faced another setback as GB News announced another potential blow to the Labour leader from across the pond. On Monday morning (June 8), Will Kingston returned to the airwaves to deliver the latest news hitting the headlines. It didn’t take long for the discussion to turn political as he spoke on the show about the President’s alleged plans for the Chagos Islands.
Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a plan to purchase the islands from Mauritius amid stalled UK efforts to cede sovereignty over the territory, The Telegraph first reported. Under the reported proposal, the Trump administration would sidestep UK officials and buy the island, securing control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base.
However, the island would first have to be made sovereign, allowing the US to negotiate its purchase directly with Mauritius. Previous legislation to hand over the islands to Mauritius was shelved in April after the US withdrew its support for the new deal.
To get a deeper understanding of what this could mean for the Prime Minister, Mr Kingston welcomed the Head of Communications for Friends of British Overseas Territories (FOTBOT), Rob Midgley, onto the show. The broadcaster stated: “This is surely more complicated than telling them to go jump,” to which the guest agreed: “Absolutely.
“First and foremost, the Chagos Islands are a British overseas territory, and there’s absolutely no need to seize, sell or lease it to anyone. They’ve been British since 1814, and we fully intend to keep it that way. What the report is looking at it’s looking at just one of many options; it’s not even the top option, but the US is simply looking at securing a long-term future for a base for Western security, and they see a very weak British Government.
“You’ve seen what’s happened in Cyprus, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar; there is a very serious weakness with our overseas territories right now, the Government just isn’t standing up for them. So, you’re going to have to expect them to start making up options on what to do.”
The expert went on to share how this could play out in Parliament, but reassured viewers that the US are nowhere close to making any moves on the islands so far. He explained: “But how would it actually happen? The original deal never proceeded, Donald Trump didn’t agree to change the 1966 agreement, where America recognises British sovereignty.
“So if they did say, ‘We’re rolling that back, and we’ll approve it’, a new bill would have to be reintroduced into Parliament, which would put Labour MPs into a very, very strange position of knowing that the Americans want to buy it. So they’d be voting to hand the islands over basically to the Americans, to Donald Trump, which is their sworn enemy. So it will be very interesting to see how that will all play out. But right now, we’re working on many different avenues.”
It didn’t take long for viewers to flock to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their thoughts on the explosive revelation online. One user penned: “Trump obviously thought Starmer/ Labour wasn’t that stupid until he saw that they were… I hope he does buy the Chagos as it would be cheaper and safer in his hands than with this Government.”
Another agreed: “This Government are in real trouble. Elections have consequences people! Wake up before it’s too late!” as a third chimed in with: “That one go spark debate for Parliament [worried emoji] UK politics and overseas territories matter plenty, especially with strategic military interests involved. Let’s see how everything plays out [shifty eyes emoji].”
