{"id":395513,"date":"2026-01-28T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395513\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:22:07","slug":"us-intelligence-agencies-disagree-with-trumps-opposition-to-chagos-deal-says-starmer-chagos-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395513\/","title":{"rendered":"US intelligence agencies disagree with Trump\u2019s opposition to Chagos deal, says Starmer | Chagos Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump\u2019s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal<\/a>, Keir Starmer has said, as he underlined how the US administration had supported the deal as it bolstered their defences.<\/p>\n

The prime minister made his remarks, which could undermine the US president\u2019s fresh view of the deal as an \u201cact of great stupidity\u201d, on the flight to Beijing for a visit that will cover UK national security among other issues.<\/p>\n

Downing Street sources have told the Guardian the agreement, which was formally approved by Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart last May, is a \u201cdone deal\u201d and will not be scuppered by the US.<\/p>\n

They said the UK government had heard nothing from either the US Department of State or the US intelligence agencies that had led them to believe they had changed their minds \u2013 despite Trump\u2019s fiery rhetoric.<\/p>\n

They suggested the US president\u2019s apparent U-turn \u2013 which has been trumpeted by the Tories who oppose the Chagos deal <\/a>\u2013 was linked to his attempts to acquire the strategically important Arctic territory of Greenland.<\/p>\n

Starmer, asked whether he trusted Trump to honour the commitment he gave in backing the deal last year, told reporters: \u201cI\u2019ve obviously discussed Chagos with Donald Trump<\/a> a number of times. It has been raised with the White House at the tail end of last week, over the weekend and into the early part of this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe position, as you know, is that when the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they\u2019d done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal \u2013 and they were announcements made by the defence secretary, from memory, Marco Rubio as well, and by president Trump himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether he believed Trump fully understood the deal \u2013 after he appeared to get the details wrong \u2013 Starmer added: \u201cThere was a three-month pause whilst his administration looked in detail at an agency level, because obviously this is about security and intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was an agency review that was conducted in the US before they then concluded that it was a deal they wanted to support, did support and did so in very clear terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump last week suggested<\/a> Britain\u2019s decision to cede the Chagos Islands<\/a> to Mauritius was among the reasons he wanted to take over Greenland, firing off a flurry of social media posts.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cShockingly, our \u201cbrilliant\u201d Nato Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that China<\/a> and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognise STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.\u201d<\/p>\n

His U-turn initially blindsided Downing Street, which had thought the deal was done and dusted months before, but subsequently resulted in a new, more combative stance from Starmer, who said he \u201cwill not yield\u201d on the issue<\/a> of Greenland.<\/p>\n

The next stage of the bill connected to the handover of Chagos has been delayed in the House of Lords, with Downing Street saying on Wednesday this was because of discussions with the US.<\/p>\n

A No 10 spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to work with the US. We\u2019ve worked with them throughout in terms of developing this treaty and as the ministers have set out, we are continuing to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Labour government agreed in October 2024 to hand over sovereignty of Chagos to Mauritius. Under the terms of the deal<\/a>, the UK will maintain an initial 99-year lease of Diego Garcia, where it runs a military base jointly with the US, at a cost projected officially to be \u00a33.4bn.<\/p>\n

The deal was agreed under pressure from Washington, British officials say, adding that their American counterparts were worried about what would happen to the base if Mauritius won a case at the international court of justice over its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

At the time, Starmer argued that the UK had \u201csecured the base for the long term\u201d and that \u201chas been opposed by our adversaries\u201d including China. However, the Tories claimed the government had sided with Beijing.<\/p>\n

China abstained on the UN vote, which was a key stage in the road to the deal, and experts believe Beijing privately views the agreement as a setback for China, for national security reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump\u2019s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal, Keir Starmer has said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-395513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}