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Louise Thomas
Editor
Former prime minister Liz Truss has hit back at claims that she was responsible for the UK losing the crucial Chagos Islands and claimed it was Boris Johnson’s fault.
An extraordinary row broke out yesterday when Keir Starmer’s government 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.
There are fears the deal will open the islands to Chinese interference and undermine Western defence and security in the southern hemisphere.
As the news broke, former foreign secretary now leadership candidate James Cleverly tweeted “weak, weak, weak” about the deal. But it quickly emerged he had initiated the talks which led to the agreement when he was in the Foreign Office.
Shortly after leadership rival and former security minister Tom Tugendhat tweeted it was “disgraceful” that a Tory government had started the talks in what was seen as a pointed remark against Mr Cleverly.
However, the Cleverly camp then responded with a briefing claiming it was Liz Truss who ordered the talks to start when she was prime minister. Mr Cleverly said he had refused to sign the deal over 15 months before Lord David Cameron took over and ditched it altogether. It was claimed Labour foreign secretary David Lammy had revived it in the first three months of government.
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.”
