Joshua Nevett,Political reporterand
Damian Grammaticas,Political correspondent
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The government has said there is “no pause” in its Chagos Islands deal despite a minister earlier telling MPs that the UK was “pausing” the process of passing the legislation to transfer control of the territory to Mauritius.
A government source said “there is no pause, we have never set a deadline and timings will be announced in the usual way”.
Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer was answering questions from MPs when he said the UK was “pausing” the process while “discussions” happened with the United States.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the deal last week, despite earlier expressing support for the treaty.
The deal would see the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius, and pay an average cost of £101m a year to lease back a joint UK-US military base on the largest island.
The UK is in the process of passing legislation to ratify the deal and on Wednesday, Falconer faced questions about that in the House of Commons.
“There was support from the US administration for this treaty, which has not changed,” Falconer.
“There clearly has been a statement from the president of the United States more recently from the president, which is very significant.
“And as I told the house [of Commons] we are now discussing those concerns with the United States directly. We have a process going through Parliament in relation to the treaty.
“We will bring that back to Parliament at the appropriate time. We are pausing for discussions with our American counterparts.”
Earlier, the prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters the UK’s position had not changed and the focus was on “discussions with the US on next steps”.
The deal has been thrown into doubt by President Trump, who last week posted on his Truth Social platform to urge Sir Keir to not “give away Diego Garcia”, home to the UK-US military base.
Trump said “this land should not be taken away from the UK” and called the deal “a blight on our great ally”.
The comments came despite the US Department of State giving its official backing to the UK government’s plan a day earlier.
