Starmer was repeatedly needled by a punchy Badenoch at PMQs over the Chagos Surrender and its £30.3 billion price tag. He repeated the line that the base on Diego Garcia was “at risk” due to court cases that do not exist and said an untruth about the deal’s supporters:
“We have secured the long term basis for the base, that has been welcomed by the US, NATO, Australia, New Zealand, India – they are our allies. It has been opposed by our adversaries – Russia, China, and Iran. And into that column we have reform presumably following Putin and the Tories following Reform.”
As Guido revealed last week China has praised the surrender and supplied “massive congratulations” to Mauritius for achieving the sellout and accompanying billions in payments from the UK taxpayer. There is no evidence for China’s opposition to the deal – it has so far only been supportive. Misleading the House…
UPDATE: Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge is on Politics Live to say that when Starmer repeated the false claim that China opposed the surrender deal he was “misleading Parliament”.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”