Henry Nicholls/PA
Liz Truss says Boris Johnson is to blame for the UK losing the crucial Chagos Islands as a row broke out over who is to blame for the decision to hand the islands to Mauritius.
Sir Keir Starmer’s administration has come in for some considerable flack after it was announced it was handing the islands to Mauritius in a deal which guarantees the UK military air base in the Indian Ocean for at least 99 years.
The Daily Mail described it as “Starmer’s Surrender” on its front page today, while a number of prominent Tory MPs – including former foreign secretary James Cleverly – hit out at the decision.
As the news broke, Cleverly posted “weak, weak, weak” on social media. But it quickly emerged he had initiated the talks which led to the agreement when he was in the Foreign Office,
His camp responded with a briefing claiming it was Liz Truss who ordered the talks to start when she was prime minister, claims which have been backed by human rights lawyer Philippe Sands.
But now Ms Truss, who is currently in Australia, has responded and claimed it was Boris Johnson when he was prime minister who ordered her to initiate the process with pre-talks with the then prime minister of Mauritius.
Her spokesman said: “It was Boris Johnson who asked Liz to talk to prime minister Jugnauth about this at COP26, which she did. But she was absolutely clear that we would and should never cede the territory.”
Meanwhile, Labour told The Independent they had no choice but to sign the deal because of the legal mess left by the Tories.
The source said: “Labour inherited a legal car crash that could have left this vital military base in the hands of the court, damaging UK and US national security. James Cleverly and the Tories tried and failed in 11 rounds of negotiations, putting our national security interests at risk.
“The new government did the deal to secure the base and shut off a potential illegal migration route. You wouldn’t get the US president applauding the deal if it put US interests at risk.”
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