A group of British Chagossians have set foot on the archipelago in defiance of the government’s exclusion zone, vowing to establish a permanent settlement on the Île du Coin and issuing a Declaration of Return. Led by Chagossian First Minister Misley Mandarin, the group promised to bring “hundreds more” islanders in due course. Mandarin is calling on Chagossians” to return home “and live the way we used to live before the exile” 50 years ago…
Addressing Keir Starmer directly, he added that if the Prime Minister had the ‘audacity’ to remove the group, he did not ‘deserve‘ to call himself a human rights lawyer, or to be leader of a ‘great country‘ like Britain:
“We are British Chagossians. We are from this island. And we are here to stay.”
Starmer was read out a list of his 13 U-turns on BBC Radio 2, to which he responded:
“Well, I am a common sense merchant.”