Left-wing commentators continue to bask in the glory of Starmer and Lammy handing away the British Indian Ocean Territory. The Guardian sneers that “Suddenly, All MPs Know Where the Chagos Islands Are and What’s Best for Them”…

While Lammy prepares to head to China next week for ‘reset’ talks no doubt made chummier by the handover, environmental campaigners are aghast at the UK’s decision. Most people aren’t aware of how important the Chagos Islands are for the environment:

• The islands cover 544,000 square kilometres of ocean with unparalleled marine biodiversity.
• They house over 780 species of fish in a massively over-fished region.
• Over 370 species of coral are found around the islands.
• Chagos has the world’s largest atoll.
• The islands are a vital home for coconut crabs (the world’s largest terrestrial arthropods) which are dangerously over-exploited elsewhere in the Indian Ocean.

After years of campaigning, scientists managed to have the British government institute a protected zone of 250,000 square miles in which no fishing would be permitted. The Mauritian government has been trying for many years to destroy the UK’s progress in protecting Chagos biodiversity. In the last decade it has launched numerous legal challenges in international courts to have the protected area removed. The Mauritians were counselled by – you guessed it – Mauritius’ chief legal adviser Philippe Sands KC. Starmer’s close mate…

Mauritius, which does not care about the environment, now has control over Chagos and has announced its intention to settle Mauritians – not Chagossians – on the isolated islands. Meanwhile, over half of Mauritian lagoons are now dead and octopus and reef fish numbers have dropped by 75% in the last few decades. The Mauritians will doubtless be rubbing their hands with glee now they can go plundering Chagos too…

A spokesman from the Friends of the British Overseas Territories charity tells Guido:

“What makes the Chagos Islands so unique and important is the complete absence of economic activity and limited human presence. Any change to this would have disastrous effects on the environment. The UK Government were elected just months ago on a manifesto which had no mention of handing over British territory, but did commit to ‘deliver for nature’. Sadly, the Government now seem eager to give away the largest jewel in the UK’s environmental crown, to a country which clearly cannot be trusted to take care of it.”

Dark days for Gaia…