The UK government is due to conclude its deal to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands after an eleventh-hour high court injunction was lifted.
Ministers are preparing to finalise the agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after they were blocked from doing so for several hours by a court ruling in the early hours of Thursday.
A government spokesperson welcomed the decision to discharge the injunction and said the handover was “vital to protect the British people and our national security”.
Under the deal, Britain will cede control over the islands to Mauritius but lease Diego Garcia for 99 years to continue operating a joint US-UK military base there. Ministers have argued that the agreement provides the legal certainty for the continued operation of the base.
John Healey, the defence secretary, is expected to make a statement in the Commons about the future of the base on Thursday afternoon.
Keir Starmer had been due to attend a virtual event with the Mauritian government when a high court judge granted an injunction brought against the Foreign Office at 2.25am on Thursday.
Mr Justice Goose granted “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, a British woman who was born on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago, who had previously taken legal action against the agreement.
Goose said in his order: “The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer.”
Discharging the injunction at the high court a few hours later, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: “The public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced by the grant or continuance of interim relief, and these matters provide a strong public interest reason against the continuance of interim relief.”
Misley Mandarin, a Chagossian who runs the BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) Citizens group, said he was “very disappointed” the ruling had paved the way for the deal to be signed.
Speaking to Sky News outside the court, he added: “The fight continues. We’ve been fighting more than 50 years … we will not, never, never let our island, a British Island, go to Mauritius.”
No 10 said last month that Donald Trump had signed off the deal after a meeting with Keir Starmer in the White House in February where the US president said he had “a feeling it’s going to work out very well”.
Ministers have refused to disclose the cost of leasing Diego Garcia but it has been reported to be about £90m a year. Some inside government and the Labour party had attacked the agreement by asking why the UK was spending billions on it amid cost pressures.
Downing Street is said to have been concerned about a “toxic” backlash were the deal to be announced amid widespread consternation over cuts to winter fuel payments and disability benefits.
MPs and campaigners have said those cuts contributed to Labour’s heavy losses in the local elections in England this month.
The news of the government’s intention to green-light the deal came a day after Starmer announced a U-turn on the winter fuel allowance. He told the Commons on Wednesday that he wanted to “ensure that as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments”. The Guardian revealed earlier this month that Downing Street was rethinking the policy.
Before February, there had been concerns in government that Trump would block the Chagos Islands agreement, after a backlash from the Conservatives and senior US Republicans.
Senior figures in the Trump administration including Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, had criticised the proposals because of Mauritius’s relationship with China.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, repeatedly claimed that Trump would reject the proposal once he turned his attention to it, but this did not materialise.
