Last month Guido related how yet another Foreign Office mission to Mauritius – seeking to revive the dead Starmer giveaway – was forced on the British taxpayer. Officials lived it up in sunny Port Louis, lovely work if you can get it…
Now exactly four weeks on from the beginning of those in-person negotiations Guido is told by well-placed sources that the process remains in a “total stalemate” – and crucially, the White House remains resolute in its opposition. The Mauritius government is furious that the deal was frustrated, the Deputy Prime Minister since resigned, and the bilateral dialogue has become nothing more than a “talking shop”…
With the Diego Garcia Bill left out of the King’s Speech there is no prospect of a concerted effort to revive the deal in this session, as it stands. The summer we saved Chagos is finally here…
Per senior US sources, the Americans see no benefit in reopening their own position while the Labour leadership is in flux at the very least. Starmer positioned himself as a master international dealmaker, Guido had other plans…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”